For all those that have asked – it’s looking more and more likely that this blog will stay in my possession. I’ve listed it twice, but have had no luck so far… I’ve had bids in the range of fifty bucks (which was joke, I think 
) all the way up to $12,000 and $15,000. The problem with the latter two bids was that although they’re a price I was looking for, the buyers wanted to pay in installments… half yearly / yearly etc, something I don’t have the time or patience for.
The auction still has a few days to run, and the commission offer should you refer the buyer still stands, however if it doesn’t sell I’ve found a couple decent writers that will man the fort while I’m busy. You can see the new auction here should you wish to. The reserve is at $7,500 and the BIN is at $11,500. 
Anyways, a lot of people want to get started with an online business… but have no idea of what to do. What goal should you aim for in your first month? How do you know if that goal is too high or too low? And so on.
I’m a PPC noob… I’ve done it in the past, but mainly with Adwords / Adsense arbitrage. With affiliate marketing though, although I’ve hit some heights, I’ve never really done enough for it to be consistant.A few days ago (or a month, maybe ) I posted on here that I was going to start from scratch, joined half a dozen affiliate networks and then just… left it. I even bought Poll Factory, created an Adwords account with credit card that has a $5,000 balance and had an idea I thought was a pretty decent one.
Anyways, I’m still learning pay per click – my aim is to start small and build up. Although I have some experience, I’m still a relative newbie and would love any help – ping me on MSN and we can swap ideas; you teach me PPC, I’ll teach you a lil bit about site flipping (or anything else).
There’s a common story that most of you will have heard, about a chess board and a chinese guy and grains of rice… now, I don’t remember how it goes but a friend translated it into the ‘penny principle’ which is something I’m going to be using from now on for all my marketing efforts.
The basic theory is that if you can make a penny, you can make two. If you can make two, you can make four. And so on.
If you can generate one dollar in affiliate commissions, or one visitor to your website, or one link, just double your efforts and you should see at least double that.
So for me, with affiliate marketing and Adwords, I’m going to look to aim for…
$0.01 profit day one, then $0.02 profit day two, then $0.04 profit day three, then $0.08 profit day four… $0.64 profit day seven, $1.28 profit day eight… you get the idea.
Small goals? Yes. However, whenever they’re reached, the goal doubles, so you have the next benchmark to aim at. I’ve always been a fan of breaking down huge tasks into smaller figures so that they look easier.
My end goal is to make at least $5,000 profit per month with pay per click and affiliate marketing.
A large figure? Yes.
Do I already have the experience to achieve it? No.
However, I’m going to keep learning, and keep working until I see success with it.
The good thing about affiliate marketing is that it can get kick started on just a few minutes a day – with Poll Factory, setting up a landing page takes all of two minutes, and then picking a niche and so on. At the moment my bids don’t seem to be showing up, so any help would be appreciated.
This principle works in almost any aspect of online marketing… if your goal is to make $1,000 per month, that’s only $33 per day or $11 per hour if you work three hours a day.
Sounds easier than the large figure, doesn’t it?
Will you be using the penny principle in your efforts to make money online?
December 11th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Jason, If you do not sell the Blog then all I can say is your loss is our gain. I for one have been a regular follower of your Blog and have picked up many cool ideas to try.
Here is what I don’t understand though. Why reinvent the wheel? It seemed like you were doing grand with flipping and why not just stick with that with some refinements you should become a master.
Adwords scares me. Every time I think I might give it a try I yank myself up straight in the chair and say just keep doing what works. I see that as a good way to piss away all of your profits, and I do NOT believe this Arbitrage Secrets BS that is being sold right at this time. Google has enough money. Work for yourself.
And take it from an old man who has been there, done that. lost a couple of fortunes along the way. Never, never, never, ever try to do it on a damned credit card.
Do yourself a VERY BIG favor and look up Dave Ramsey online, listen to some of his podcasts, or buy some of his books. You will never use credit the rest of your life.
I do wish you all the best of success.
Rich Hill
Rich Hill’s last blog post..Mine is Shorter Than Yours Contest
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Jason (703 comments) Reply:
December 11th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Hey Rich,
Thanks for the long comment.
Re reinventing the wheel… I think the market is a bit poorer right now than it was say 5,10 months ago. 5 months ago the blog as it is would have been snapped up pretty quick for BIN; now it barely gets bids. My sites are still selling, but they’re taking longer to do so and for around 10-20% less than they were. So diversification… people may be less willing to pay $X for a site nowadays than they were five months ago, but I doubt they’re less willing to enter their free email address into X form to get an iPod nano.
Everything I do, everything I try is experience. I may fail, and I’ve probably failed a lot, but the ideas, the concepts, the theories help me out in other aspects, and they’re continually getting better.
As for arbritrage… I was doing okay with it, although I was using more MIVA and other ad networks than Adwords (as the former is cheaper). My highest day was just about the hundred dollar mark, and I’ve made a bit more than that through CPM arbitrage. However, due to the recession and what not, companies are tightening up and it is harder these days, I think.
The credit card is prepaid – $5,000 limit. So more a debit card, I guess. I can spend anything up till that amount, and will spend it – if I reap profits, I continue, if not, I’ll stop and write it off as I suck at aff marketing.
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December 11th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Interesting thoughts. Like the person that first commented, I think you should stick with site flipping. It sounded like you were dominating so why go to something else?
Blog Expert’s last blog post..Digg Headlines That Work
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the Blogoholic (18 comments) Reply:
December 20th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
I agree that you should stick with what works, but if you don’t try out other ways to make money, you’ll never know if what you’re doing is making you the most money.
the Blogoholic’s last blog post..Killer Posts & Updates From Around the Blogosphere
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December 11th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
..Guys, I mean no offense to anyone, and these are constructive comments you’re making, but you’re not talking to a kid who’s using mom’s car for a joyride to the mall to buy crap with a credit card burning a hole in his pocket. Jason is wise beyond his years, these are legitimate business expenses/research in the commerce of tomorrow and I’ll bet every dollar he spends is critiqued, and plenty.
Rich, he’s not reinventing the wheel. There’s no wheel; what works today may very well not work tomorrow (eg the site flipping). He’s looking for opportunity to exploit, and standing still amid shifting sands is not an option, nor should it be when you are 16.
Tom @ wagefreedom.com’s last blog post..The Way of the Freelancer
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the Blogoholic (18 comments) Reply:
December 20th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Exactly, Jason isn’t some beginner that wants to start messing around with all the different ways to make money online.
the Blogoholic’s last blog post..Killer Posts & Updates From Around the Blogosphere
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December 11th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
I’ve been testing out various PPC campaigns for AM and some have been great and some have been eh. But I’ll hit you up on Yahoo sometime to exchange ideas… if I remember.
Jay
Jay’s last blog post..Free Avatar and Character Creators
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December 12th, 2008 at 1:20 am
It was kind of sad to see TUK go at first when I know you’re selling it. TUK has been the ONLY blog that I read from end of 2007 until now.
So yeah Jason rock on!
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December 12th, 2008 at 1:55 am
Keep going along what you think is right. Do what you want to do. All the best.
But I’d like to see a few flipping tips thrown here and there.
Ganesh – Online Bull’s last blog post..Online Bull’s First Contest – Over $600 Worth Prizes of to be Won!
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December 12th, 2008 at 5:20 am
Man I can’t believe it didn’t sell. Slyvisions.com sold for 9,500 and his site has only about half as good stats. sitepoint really messed up on that one. I’m kind of happy you aren’t leaving us though, as cruel as that is of me.
How to Blog’s last blog post..Selling your Blog
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December 12th, 2008 at 9:11 am
Great tip, actually before I was like also hesitant to spend something on payper click but then its really not as frightening as what most people think. I think another term I use for that is the “lather rinse repeat” attitude. It’s like you spend $100 in adwords, then make $120 in commissions. If you keep that consistently then someday somehow, it would be $1000 in cost and $2000 in commissions w/c is better.. I always try to look for volumes then the money will flow in…
Btw, I was waiting for your custom theme and maybe you could use it now..
Melvin’s last blog post..Answers On Q and A And Some Things To Say
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December 12th, 2008 at 9:59 am
Good luck with the second auction. From my point of view, you need a lot of money for PPC plan, and if you don’t have savings, the sale of this blog will help you much in that experiment
.
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December 12th, 2008 at 10:42 am
I tried Adwords arbitrage one and it is too competitive now, PPC is also too expensive now
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December 12th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Its all right Jason. We are happy if it gets sold or not. Any talking about this post. I don’t have much experience in PPC. But I wanted to learn some. I hope you’ll help me after you learn them
Harish | Blogging Kid’s last blog post..First Ever Contest At Blogging Kid Launched
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December 12th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
I am surprised you have not generated more interest, I really enjoy your blog and have read it for a while now. I hope you get what it is worth, it seems a shame because it is such a good site to help you make money
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December 12th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Yeah..that is a good idea because I have been trying to get more clicks with my marketing efforts. When I first got into affiliate marketing I was excited, but I soon noticed, it takes ALOT of work. Good post.
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December 13th, 2008 at 12:06 am
I suppose it the current economic climate being in the doldrums that a blog like your is not being snapped up however wish you all the best for the auction. If that doesn’t work you still have your fall back position of hiring writers, so it will work out fine.
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December 13th, 2008 at 3:02 am
Best of luck with the re-list!
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December 13th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Well, with the brand that TUK is, the readerbase it has, the amount of content, the popularity, I do not think it should sell for anything less than 15k. And then, you’re adding BP to it as well.
It’s kind of surprising why you’re not getting bids..
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December 14th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Hey…. I found your auction. Nice sites. One thing that might help the sale…. ditch all the dang spammers at BP. One of the first things I noticed is some really ugly titles on the posts. You’ve got some poster named RedLoveCOR slamming your forum right now…. he’s got 5 posts at the top of Blog Monetization that are nothing but porn. It makes it look like the site is dormant and a free for all for spammers.
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December 16th, 2008 at 2:45 am
Good luck selling I cant believe sly sold for more.
Germz’s last blog post..Recession? Not for me – How to make hundreds freelancing
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the Blogoholic (18 comments) Reply:
December 20th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Ya, I was also shocked to see that a blog with half the stats of this blog sold for double the highest bid. I guess it was just at the right place at the right time.
(Also, the blog had Sly’s name in it: http://www.slyvisions.com – I really don’t understand how it went for so much)
the Blogoholic’s last blog post..Killer Posts & Updates From Around the Blogosphere
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December 16th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Great Awesome Post Jason. I am already making good chunk of money using this principle!
Cash Gifting Exposed’s last blog post..ALS Cash Gifting
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December 16th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
You have the right attitude and mindset to make the money. Now you just have to apply your knowledge and get to work, which from the looks of this blog, you are already under way. Keep us posted to how and what you are going to do to make the 5,000 a month.
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December 17th, 2008 at 4:43 am
Lol I see you have gained more subscribers while trying to sell your blog..
Ben Pei’s last blog post..Social Media Turns Into A Weapon
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December 17th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Are you still looking for help with Adwords? My background is SEO and Adwords so I can help but not sure what you could do for me in return. Just let me know if you still need help and we can talk about it. Thanks.
-Gerald Weber
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December 18th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
I love the penny doubling technique… Think logrithmically rather than linearly and the path to wealth seems a lot shorter. For example, 20 doublings is a million cents or $10k. Rinse, lather, repeat…
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December 19th, 2008 at 8:13 am
just like zig ziglar said…make it easier to accomplished
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December 19th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
I wish you the best with that PPC, but it is not for me. I don’t like the idea of it, well at the moment that is. I just scares the hell out off me.
But I will be watching!
Freddie Taylor’s last blog post..I Need To Fire My Offline Business
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December 26th, 2008 at 6:58 am
Honestly, while PPC may rake in some dough for you, its probably a waste of time without very high traffic numbers, perfect placement, AND the right audience. Getting all three down is a miracle.
Ahmed’s last blog post..With a Few Well-Placed Shoes, We’ll Change the World
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December 31st, 2008 at 7:16 am
I agree with you,Ahmed,it is a great time waste and I cannot be quite sure of the best results.
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January 2nd, 2009 at 12:10 am
Hi,
WOW ! I am very new to blogging. I mean when I say new two months and I never knew about your blog. I just came across your blog and advise I got from just this article is way beyond.
Thanks you and I hope to go through this blog’s everyword and see where it leads me in 2009.
Thanks you for your hard work and advises and tips…
Mayur Sangani
Mayur Sangani’s last blog post..Hello world!
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January 5th, 2009 at 1:25 am
That’s an interesting idea with doubling. I think I might try that as it helps keep track of how much you’re making and pushes you to work harder. I worry though that the doubling will be too great once you reach larger numbers and may need a different scale system.
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May 20th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Great Blog So true and some Excellent advise. I have said it before and I will say it again, I personally believe Honesty and Integrity are the back bones of life no matter what your goals may be, and a definite attribute in any type of business dealings.
Regards
Rick
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