TheRugged.com is a post from: i7o Media

We’re finally ready to launch our first major project! A men’s online lifestyle magazine targeting men ages 18-34. Head over to the site and subscribe now. You’ll be the first to know when we officially launch!

The Rugged will feature articles related to health, fitness, finance, relationships, sports, style, tech toys, and everything else men love! You’ll also be able to check out some great recipes, learn how to make drinks, ask questions, join the debates, interact in the forums, and even be entertained by the daily bits.

Eventually, we’ll be ‘competing’ with large sites such as AskMen, MadeMan, Spike, FHM, and others in the men’s lifestyle niche. We don’t plan to stop there. We’re going to take this brand and drive it into other men’s products/services as well. More on that at a later date. For now, check out a teaser shot:

Website

Looking For Partners (Joint Ventures)

Email “partner at therugged.com”  (replace “at” with “@” and remove the spaces) and give us the info!

- Investors

- Advertisers

- Related publishers/sites

- Models

- Guest Authors

- Interviews

- Writers

- Anyone who believes we need to connect

We’re Hiring Writers (Both Men and Women)

We’re looking for writers who are interested in developing a long-term relationship. We want great writers, and we want them to stick around. We feel that our pay structure reflects that. Pay is negotiable, depending on skills, article quality, and the ability to generate buzz and readership.

Base Pay: $3 per 100 words. We plan to gradually increase this figure, upwards of $10 per 100 words as the magazine grows. Articles will typically stay at around 400-600 words. Although there will also be the occasional 200 word news articles, and even 1000 word pillar articles.

Bonus: If your articles are hitting the front page of social media sites, it won’t go unnoticed. You’ll be awarded bonus pay for such achievements – upwards of $100 depending on the success of the article.

Revenue-Sharing: We want our success to be your success. Therefore, writers will share a percentage of monthly revenue.

Additional Opportunities: As the magazine grows, one of the first priorities will be to increase the pay and opportunities for our writers. As mentioned, we’ll also be looking for senior editors, and even community managers in the future.

Topics

Keep in mind that this is a men’s magazine, not wikipedia. Every article should be engaging, and entertaining. A perfect example of what we’re looking for is the publication; Men’s Health. With that said, we’re looking for writers to take on a variety of topics including:

Health & Fitness

Power & Money

Sex & Relationships – Looking for articles that are a bit more sophisticated than what you might find in say, FHM. This can be a bit tricky, but if you’ve ever read Men’s Health and FHM, you see the difference in the target audience. FHM targets teenage boys. Men’s Health targets men starting careers. Our target audience is more on par with Men’s Health.

Sports – We’re looking for broad topics here. A bad example would be a complete run down of a baseball game. A good example might be something about the Brett Favre controversy, or a hyped up UFC fight. Anything that interests the main stream, and not necessarily specific sports gurus.

Style – Clothes, hygiene, etc.

Tech – Concept cars, smart phones, gadgets, toys, video games, the web, etc. Again, we’re looking for broad articles covering the juicy stuff, not technical pieces.

Controversial Rants – We plan to have a section that is purely controversial. Your job will be to generate debates among our readers, in an educated, witty, humorous, open-minded way. We stress “open-minded” because we do intend on having political debates. If you find it hard to agree with views from more than one news station, then you’re probably not what we’re looking for in this particular section.

Requirements

- Excellent English writing skills (grammar, spelling, sentence structure).

- Be able to format an article for the best possible readability. Know when (and when not) to use bullets, sub-headers, etc.

- Be capable of extensively researching a subject, and portraying authority.

- Engaging writing style (this might include witty, humorous, personal, ability to connect with readers).

- Be able to produce content that generates buzz, and is worthy of being linked to.

- One article per week when necessary.

- Respond to comments.

- Respond to a monthly Q&A (regarding your expertise) sent in from readers

How To Apply

Email partner @ therugged.com (remove spaces) and include the following:

- Name, age, sex, location, and an avatar (photo of you).

- Let us know which topics you’d like to write about.

- 3 sample articles that you’ve written. If they haven’t been used/published yet, you may even be paid for these, if hired.

- Reason(s) you would be perfect for the job. Maybe you’re passionate about a specific topic, maybe you already have experience with online writing, maybe you know how to use WordPress, or maybe you’re good at marketing. Whatever you think we should know!

Men’s Online Magazine (Now Hiring) is a post from: i7o Media

Basically, you see something you like on Amazon detail pages, and you push it to your followers. This isn’t a feature I’ll be using, atleast not on any of my current twitter accounts. But it could come in handy for those twitter accounts that are devoted to deals, specific products, etc.

Don’t be surpirsed if you see a lot more of Amazon floating around on your twitter feeds. Oh boy, can’t wait.

Amazon On Twitter is a post from: i7o Media

Businesses want to know what internet advertising has to offer their company. Individuals want to know how these websites are making money, or even how to make money with a blog, so that they can cash in themselves. It’s all very simple, but again, not something that everyone is familiar with. It needs a bit of explaining.

How Internet Advertising Works

Advertising on the internet works much in the same way as other advertising channels do:

• Radio – Radio stations that you’re listening to are playing your favorite music so that you’ll tune in on your way to work. The more people that tune in, the more money they make. They’re able to sell ads based on the number of people who listen to their station.
• Television – Networks are playing your favorite shows so that you’ll watch their channel. The commercials give networks the money they need to pay for the showings, with plenty of money left over for them to pocket.
• Billboards – If a new local business wants to raise awareness of their brand, a billboard on the side of the highway is a good start. The advertiser of course has to pay the person that owns the space (where the billboard is located).
• Internet – Content websites are made so that they can educate, inform, and entertain you. These websites make money because of the advertisements that they expose you to (banners, paid links, paid reviews, etc.). Next time you do a search on Google, or any other search engine, take a look at the top, and on the side of the results. You’re going to see a lot of sponsored listings. Click on those listings, and the search engines get paid.
• Everywhere – Trucks, labels, banners, and everywhere else you look.

Advertising is all around you. Businesses are building their brand, and making money. You’re being exposed to those brands, and buying from them. Companies that want to sell you something (Pepsi, Microsoft, Kraft, etc.) want to be where you’re at. They want to advertise in the places that you’re paying attention to.

Therefore, an entirely different kind of business opportunity exists. A business that focuses on getting your attention, and entertaining you (TV shows, radio stations, websites). They entertain you, because if they succeed in getting your attention, then they profit from the companies who are trying to sell you something, and therefore willing to advertise.

Advantages of Advertising on the Internet

• Huge Potential – More and more people are forgetting about their televisions, throwing away their magazines, and turning to the internet. As economies grow, and the costs of getting on the internet decrease, the number of people who access the internet will continue to skyrocket.
• Global Reach – Getting your message across to populations from around the world has never been easier. This is especially important to businesses that have a target market that is scattered around in different locations.
• Low Entry-Level Fees – You can begin advertising on the internet with only a few cents.
• Laser Targeted – You can target customers who are searching exact keyword phrases. For example, a dry cleaning business located in Denver could bid through Google on the keyword phrase “dry cleaning in Denver.” It doesn’t get more targeted than that.
• Excellent Tracking – You’re able to monitor how many impressions your ad is getting, and how many people are clicking through to your website.
• Cost Efficient – Since you’re able to target and track yours ads, advertising on the internet is typically a lot cheaper – less money going to waste.
• Easy – It’s usually just a matter of signing up to a network, uploading an ad, and starting your campaign.

Internet Advertising Models

There are a variety of different models that advertisers and publishers can use to cater to their preferences:

Cost Per Click (CPC) – Advertisers only pay when their ad is clicked on.

Cost Per Impression (CPI) – More commonly referred to as CPM (cost per thousand page impressions). Advertisers pay every time that their ad appears on a users screen.

Cost Per Sale (CPS) – An advertiser pays the referrer every time a sale is made.

Cost Per Action (CPA) & Cost Per Lead (CPL) – Advertisers pay when an action is taken or interest is shown (email opt-in, free registration, etc.).

Additional Options – Of course, advertisers can contact specific publishers to work out a customized advertising package. This could include paid reviews, or banner advertisements that run for a month (usually priced with a flat rate).

There you have it – the basics of internet advertising. Now that you know all about advertising on the internet, go build your brand, and start making money online!

Advertising On The Internet is a post from: i7o Media

BuddyPress is basically…well, never mind. Here’s Matt’s explanation taken from the official WordPress blog:

“BuddyPress is essentially a set of plugins on top of WordPress that add private messaging, profiles, friends, groups, activity streams, and everything else you’ve come to expect from your favorite social network, like a Facebook-in-a-box.”

Don’t expect to become the next Facebook with BuddyPress – that just isn’t going to happen. However, if you already have a blog with a thriving community (especially in a small, but popular niche), then BuddyPress is something you’ll definitely want to look into.

I’ve been thinking a lot about implementing a social network into my new project, but I wasn’t sure if it was worth the hassle. BuddyPress might make that decision a lot easier.

Then again, if Facebook or Google monopolizes internet profiling (Facebook Connect/Google Friend Connect), there might not be a need for any sort of social networking on a single site. To be honest, if this happened, it would make life a bit easier as a publisher…imo.

Anyone planning to try BuddyPress? Would also like to hear what people think about bbPress, although I don’t think I’ve really heard of anyone using it.

WordPress + Facebook = BuddyPress? is a post from: i7o Media

Loren explains how to make compelling videos. He gives plenty of great advice for those who are just starting out. I’m sure the more experienced vloggers will find a few good tips in this speech as well.

His comment about Gary Vaynerchuck are a bit funny though – considering the monsterous success that Gary has achieved lately. I’d have to agree, I think Gary is part actor – but people eat that up, apparently.

Loren Feldman – IzeaFest is a post from: i7o Media

1. Jeremy Schoemaker (aka ShoeMoney) recently announced that they are accepting applications for a summer internship at ShoeMoney Media Group INC. It’s no secret that ShoeMoney is one of the top money makers online. He rakes in more than half a million dollars a year from his blog alone. Famous for his $132,994.97 Adsense check.

This guy doesn’t play around. If you’re looking to run your own internet business, then this is like becoming Donald Trump’s apprentice. There were a few hundred applicants in the first day alone, but if you can manage to grab their attention, and make it through the internship – as ShoeMoney put it – your life will never be the same.

2. Alex Pang started a new venture with the launch of his micro fund. If you’ve been preparing to launch a new venture, but just don’t have the funds, then you’ll definitely want to send in your proposal. Alex is planning to give an entrepreneur (maybe up to 4) anywhere from $500 to $3,000 and has mentioned that he’d be willing to raise that cap to potentially $10,000 if the proposal is good enough.

Don’t worry, there are absolutely no strings attached. He’s not asking for 50% of your business, and he’s not going to take your house if you can’t repay the fund. There are no contracts. He simply asks that if your business succeeds, that you pay it forward (pay back the loan so that it can be used to help another entrepreneur).

If it doesn’t succeed, then you liquidate whatever you can to help pay back the funds given to you. You’re not going to find many investors that are this flexible.

Again, the experience, exposure – and more importantly – relationships that you could develop from both of these opportunities could honestly be life changing. If you don’t atleast give it a shot, then you should probably be asking yourself how serious you really are about making money online.

Once In A Lifetime Opportunities ($3,000 And An Internship) is a post from: i7o Media

NOTE (Read First): This list is still in the process of being updated and especially organized. Plenty more links to add, and plenty more to be done to improve navigation of these links. This list is for your benefit, as well as mine. Put simply, I got tired of having so many bookmarks for my business. Now, I have one.

Conquer The Web

Learning to conquer the web can actually be quite easy, as long as you have the tools and resources you need to do it. Many aspiring internet marketers have no clue where to begin – they subscribe to more than enough feeds, buy overpriced books, and spend more time on forums than they do on their actual business.

This is your solution – the ultimate bookmark. My goal was to create a portal. Here you’ll find a list of everything that I believe to be worthy of your time. I will continue to keep this list up-to-date, so all you need to do is bookmark it, and refer back to it whenever the need arises. Want to recommend a link? Contact me, and I’ll look it over. This list is in no way “complete.” The whole point of it being “The Ultimate Bookmark” is so that we can continue to update and add to it.

You love it – we understand. Tell your friends, link to us, comment, subscribe – all that good stuff.

Analytics

ClickTale – Watch mouse movements and clicks from visitors.

Crazy Egg – Heatmaps that allow you to see what’s hot on your site.

Google Analytics – A must have – learn more about where your visitors come from, and how they interact with your site.

Quantcast – Shows your audience reach and composition. Allows you to attract higher ad rates.

Directories

Alltop – Stay on top of what’s being said in your niche.

Best of the Web – The internet’s oldest directory.

BigBoards – Forum rankings and directory. Find out which forums are hot in your niche, and then join the community.

Blogged – Find out who your competitors are, and then make them your friends. Also see what other people think about your blog.

DMOZ – One of the hardest directories to get into, but many argue that it’s well worth the wait.

Yahoo! Directory – Expensive, but you know you want in.

Firefox Add-ons

Fireshot – Create screenshots of webpages.

PageSpeed – Improve the load time of your website.

SEO Book Toolbar – The one and only add-on you need for SEO.

ScribeFire – Full-featured blog editor.

ShareThis – Instantly share content from around the web through an array of social media and bookmarking sites.

Hosting

Host Gator – The host I recommend to people looking for shared hosting.

Liquid Web – The host I recommend to people looking for dedicated servers.

Who’s Hosting The Top Blogs – These web hosts are favorites among top bloggers.

Images

Big Stock Photo – Another excellent source to find images for your articles, or any other projects you might be working on.

Crestock – Creative stock images.

iStockphoto – My personal favorite. Probably the best selection of images, and they even have a free image of the week.

PicApp – An excellent way to get images for your articles (especially from recent events). It has it’s advantages and disadvantages (read up on it).

Legal

Copyscape – Search for copies of your page on the web. Make sure the content that your writers are producing is unique and original. Plagiarism and a bad reputation isn’t a good way to start a business.

Disclosure Policy Generator – Need a disclosure, but have no clue how to create one? Click a few buttons, and be done with it.

LegalZoom – Online legal document services – trademarks, patents, copyrights, etc.

Marketing

AWeber – Email marketing – newsletters, autoresponders, RSS to email.

BlogBurst – RSS-based blog syndication network for online media publishers

Blog Carnival – Submit your articles to a variety of blog carnivals for more exposure.

Entrecard – An excellent way for small bloggers to get started. Create a stream of traffic, get your name into the blogosphere, and make contacts.

MyAds – Advertise on MySpace.

PRWeb – Press release distribution.

Sphere – Connects your current articles to contextually relevant content from across the web.

Subvert and Profit – Black market for votes on social media sites. Use at your own risk.

TubeMogul – Distribute your videos to multiple sites.

Monetizing

OIOPublisher – Take control of your own advertising, and forget the middleman. Direct advertising doesn’t get any easier than this. Sell banners, text links, reviews, ebooks, or whatever else your heart desires. Even set up your own affiliate program.

Pluck On Demand – Adds contextually relevant content and social media to your site, earning you revenue, while increasing pageviews and user engagement.

Vibrant Media – In-text advertising.

Kontera – In-text ppc ads.

Infolinks – Linking text to revenue.

AdBrite – Internet’s ad marketplace

Networks

Global Interactive

Tribal Fusion

Tribes

Glam Media

Other Excellent Resources

99designs – A designer marketplace. Crowd sourcing at it’s best.

AMember

Angelsoft – Tools for startups, VCs, and angel investors.

Brightcove

Business Models on the Web

Buy Text Links

Escrow

Widgetbox – Find and create web widgets.

Lulu – Self publishing (books, calendars, etc.)

Magpie – Ad network for Twitter.

Most Valuable Blogs

Elance – Hire experts.

Flippa – Buy/sell websites and domains.

Webmaster Central – Webmaster tools from Google.

Sphere – Connects your current articles to contextually relevant content from across the web.

Unfollow All

Kaltura Video Platform

Yume

IZEA – A few great web properties that come in handy.

Printing

UPrinting – Quality printing at great prices. Brochures, business cards, flyers, letterheads, etc.

Security

COMODO – Our recommended firewall

ESET NOD32 – Our recommended antivirus/spyware software

Social Networking

Facebook – Connect and share with friends, family, and contacts. Create a page for your business and build a fan base.

LinkedIn – Exchange information, ideas, and opportunities with other professionals.

Twitter – A simple way to communicate and stay connected with short updates. Possibly the easiest way to contact people who otherwise would have been unreachable.

Studies & Research

Design Study Of Big Blogs – Find out how many columns, which typeface, and even the fonts that big blogs are using.

Design Study of Big Blogs (Part 2) – Structure, advertisements, and functionality.

Search Engine Ranking Factors

Why Readers Unsubscribe – 34 reasons provided by readers.

Themes

Wordpress

WooThemes

StudioPress

ithemes

Joomla

RocketTheme

JoomlaXTC

JoomlArt

Shape5

Tools

BrowserShots – Check browser compatibility.

CamStudio – Screen recording doesn’t get any easier than this. It’s as simple as pushing record, pause, stop. There’s also a few advanced features if you’re wanting to test your skills. Not as pro as Camtasia, but CamStudio is free, and it gets the job done.

Digsby – IM + Email + Social Networks. Get a notification when you get an email, add contacts from all of your IM accounts, twitter from your desktop, and read the feeds from your Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.

Gimp – Need to open psd files to edit layers? Want to enhance an image, or retouch a photo? Gimp can do just about everything that Photoshop can, and it won’t cost you anything.

Website Grader – Does a pretty good job at measuring the marketing effectiveness of your website.

bit.ly – Shorten, share, and track your links.

Zemanta – Suggests tags, links, photos, and related articles for enrichment of your blog posts.

Ultimate Guides/Lists

101 Techniques for Wordpress – Building a powerful CMS with WordPress.

404 Error Pages Examined – Some good advice and great examples.

Adsense Performance – An ultimate roundup.

Advertise Yourself – 30+ ways to do it.

Affiliate Marketing Guide – A crap load of affiliate marketing tools, articles, and experiments.

Blogger’s Glossary – Definitions for new bloggers.

Building Links – 101 Tips and strategies.

Collection of Wordpress – Tutorials, tips, and themes.

Everything Twitter – Learn the basics of starting a twitter account and attracting followers. Then discover the different twitter apps, and plugins that are out there.

FaceBook Fan Page – How to set up and promote one.

Headline Formulas – 102 of them.

IAB Ad Unit Guidelines – Follow these guidelines when placing advertisements on your site, especially if you’re not large enough yet to seek out direct advertisers.

Internet Marketing Blog Rankings – The who’s who of internet marketing.

Internet Marketing Handbook – The best tools and resources needed to master internet marketing.

Iphone Apps for Business – A list of 21 apps that will help you run your business.

Link Building – 69 solid tactics.

Link Worthy – 11 ways to increase your chances of being linked to by a blogger.

Make Money Blogging – A list of different ways to make money from your blog.

Multi-Author Blogs – 35 tips to manage them.

Press Release – 20+ Free Distribution Sites.

Web Apps For Freelancers – 100 of them.

Web Hosting – Everything you need to know before deciding on a web host.

WordPress Expert – 300+ Resources to get you started.

WordPress Hacks – 40 of them.

WordPress Hacks – 30 more.

WordPress Plugins – The best of them.

Videos: Inspiring & Educational

Belcher Button Explained

Building Your Brand: Gary Vaynerchuck

SEO Mistakes Most Bloggers Make: Stephan Spencer

Make Compelling Videos: Loren Feldman

Further Reading

Want more? Check out these excellent articles from around the web:

Achieve Your Goals – By surfing the web.

Blogging Alliance – Why you should have one.

Blog Tips for ProBloggers – More the more experienced blogger.

Blueprint for a Blog Launch – Good tips for generating buzz, and keeping it.

Breadcrumb Navigation – Examined.

Build Traffic – 169 ways to do it.

Find Ideas – For blog posts.

Get Advertisers – How to be better prepared.

Get Featured by the Press

Polish Article Design – Make them more appealing.

Pre Launch Check – 15 essential checks before launching your website.

Strategic Design – Designing your website with intelligence.

Twitter Follow Fail – Why you won’t be followed on Twitter.

URL Shortener – Create your own with WordPress.

Website Maintenance Tips – For front-end developers.

Web Usability – 7 common problems.

WordPress Typography – 20 plugins to enhance readability.

Load Impact

Marketing Bullets

The Ultimate Bookmark (For Online Entrepreneurs) is a post from: i7o Media