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WANTED: Current or Former Salesman, Sales Manager or F&I Manager in the Auto Industry

If you have worked at a car dealership (or used car lot) then you know how much money their is in the auto industry. It is nothing for a dealership to spend $100k on a weekend sale and they’ll probably earn more than twice that amount if the sale is well executed!

That same volume of money is available on the internet in the auto industry. There are many ways to capitalize on that market, and I have found a pretty interesting one.

If you fit the profile of having worked, or currently work in the auto industry then I want to work with you to develop a website targeted to consumers.

Don’t worry if you are currently employed, this is an anonymous writing position. You’ll be able to write about your experiences (past and present) and also be able to pass along valuable information to consumers.

If this is you, email me at brandonchopkins@gmail.com for more info.

By |April 10th, 2007|News|0 Comments

Why I Blog

Well, Skitzzo at the SEO Refugee blog tagged me so in order to comply, here are the top 5 reasons why I blog.

1. Make Money Online – Without a doubt this is the number one reason why I blog. Sure I like giving out information free, and I really like spending my time in front of a computer, but without making any money, I would definitely give it all up.

2. Sense of accomplishment – I love writing a good article, or piece of linkbait and getting 75 trackbacks and 200 links. That makes me feel really good, and is fun when it works.

3. Gain readers and clients – Blogging, as opposed to writing, is like fertile ground waiting to be planted. With blogging, I have RSS readers who visit my site for just about every update, I have people email me, some of which become clients, and the ability not to have to touch as much HTML.

4. Perfect for testing – My wife would tell you that I don’t care as much about what works, but instead care about why and how it works. Before I hit the front page of Digg, 3 people told me it couldn’t be done without thousands of RSS subscribers and a bunch of people willing to Digg your article. I had neither, 27 people were subscribed to my RSS feed, and I knew 3 other people with Digg accounts that I could ask for a digg.

5. Learn to create better content – Blogging is easy to do, but difficult to master. Of those people who have mastered it, each one masters a different tactic. Some are able to post 10 quality posts in an 8 hour day. Some post 1 post per day that is always linkable and digg worthy. In either case, the mastery is shown through the quality of the content. These are the people I admire and base my writing style after.

Ok, that’s why I blog. Below are my tagees.

1. Matt @ TakeMoreRisks.com

2. Lord Matt @ LordMatt.co.uk

3. Eve @ HomeBizBlogger.com

4. Oli @ ThePCSpy.com

5. Bill @ Bill2Me.com

Here is a full list of the Why Do You Blog thingy going on right now…

Those people I tagged need to make a new post featuring the 5 (or so) reasons you blog, then tag 5 others and let them know they’ve been tagged!

By |April 9th, 2007|About Me|5 Comments

Make Money Online with AssociatedContent.com

Here is another great way to make money online.

Make approximately $150/month writing 1 article per day, 5 days a week.

About a month ago I wrote and submitted an article to About.com to be a guide for their used car section. I have been a car salesman, finance manager and a used car manager so I figured I was a perfect fit for the job. Long story short, they didn’t agree. That left me with a pretty good article discussing how a CARFAX report can save you money on a used car titled “What Used Car Managers Don’t Want You to Know“.

Join Associated ContentI didn’t know what to do with the article. I have been pondering a site about car buying advice, but there are a lot of other good sites out there about the same thing. Then I thought about just posting the article here, but since the article had nothing to do with making money online, I knew you wouldn’t care. After all, good content should never go to waste.

That’s when I found AssociatedContent.com (aff). I didn’t (and still don’t) know much about the site, but they thought my article was worth $7.03. I think it also might be eligible for some sort of bonus, but I’m not sure how that works.

It took about 5 days after I originally submitted the article for them to approve it and send me an offer for $7.03. I don’t know what would have happened if I denied the offer, but I chose to accept it.

My account now shows that my article has a total of 0 page views (which isn’t accurate) and says that I’ve earned $0.00 as a “Current Bonus”. I don’t know how to get a bonus, or who is eligible. I assume it is based on the amount of page views your article generates, but it’s a little unclear to me.

I really like the format and all of the tools that AC offers, and it seems like a great way to make money online. Like I said, I’m still a little confused by the whole process, but it could be a great way to make money online if you are a good writer.

Associated Content offer a newsletter that is sent daily giving you some advice on the topics they are looking for. That is a great way to get ideas for new content.

If you were to write an article a day, 5 days a week and averaged $7 per article, you would earn approximately $150 a month. Not shabby for just 1 article per day. I’ve read that some articles are worth up to $40 each!

Some of you articles might be rejected, and some might not be worth $7, but that could be your goal, 1 approved article worth $7 a day.

From what I understand, Associated Content pays via Paypal whenever your account reaches $15, twice a month (1st and 15th).

For more information check out AssociatedContent.com and please use my affiliate link. I don’t know what I get, but when I find out I’ll let you know!
Join Associated Content

By |April 7th, 2007|Make Money Online|11 Comments

Someone’s Stealing My Content!

I just got a few trackbacks from a site that is using the same theme I’m using, and he is duplicating my content!

I emailed the lamer listed on the whois, Ricky Ford, and told him that the DMCA prevented content theft. I also emailed his host and GoDaddy, his registrar. GoDaddy is the only one who has responded.

Here is my email to him:

ATTN: Ricky Ford
808 W Mackenzie
Hobbs, NM 88240
505-631-9815

I don’t know why, but you seem to have stolen a few pages of my content for your site at ***(don’t want to link to the stolen content).

According to the DMCA ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMCA) you are breaking the law by stealing my intellectual property.

I am also sending this to your host DimeNoc because DMCA Title II states that they will not be held responsible for theft if they, “promptly block access to allegedly infringing material (or remove such material from their systems) if they receive a notification claiming infringement from a copyright holder or the copyright holder’s agent.”

I will also send this to GoDaddy because I am sure they are not aware that you are using them to register domains in an attempt to steal content. Since they are an online service provider, they also fall under DMCA Title II and will be exempted from any further actions if they remove the content.

I hope this can end without further actions needing to be taken.

Brandon Hopkin
s

GoDaddy (whom I’ve already expressed my dislike for) emailed me their response:

Thank you for contacting the GoDaddy.com Spam and Abuse Department.

We are not the hosting provider for this site. We are the domain name registrar only. We have neither access to, nor jurisdiction over the content on this site.
The web hosting provider for this website is the company responsible for policing this content and is required to respond to Copyright complaints as outlined by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

And then some more blah blah blah. Of course I responded (because I read Title II of the DMCA) and told GoDaddy:

The DMCA reads, “DMCA Title II, the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act (“OCILLA”) creates a safe harbor for online service providers (OSPs, including ISPs) against copyright liability if they adhere to and qualify for certain prescribed safe harbor guidelines and promptly block access to allegedly infringing material (or remove such material from their systems) if they receive a notification claiming infringement from a copyright holder or the copyright holder’s agent.”

GoDaddy is an online service provider, that is now allowing the site *** to steal content.

Is GoDaddy not an online service provider?

So in my opinion anyone who is an online service provider is required (in order to hide behind the “safe harbor” guideline) is liable for “blocking” access or “removing” such material. GoDaddy could block that material by changing the nameservers.

GoDaddy has yet to respond and so has Ricky Ford and his host DimeNoc. His email address is listed as sales@vernalhost.com which seems to be just a hosting template.

We’ll see how this ends up, I really don’t want to have to get a lawyer to figure all of this out, but theft is theft.

Then again, as my wife reminds me, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” Then I remind her that theft is, “Illegal taking of another person’s property without that person’s freely-given consent.

UPDATE: All stolen content has been removed.  He is using someone elses RSS feed to duplicate their content, but that isn’t my issue anymore!

By |April 7th, 2007|News|4 Comments