My Podcasting Equipment:

I’ve been very satisfied with the overall sound quality I’ve been able to get both by recording the sound directly on my computer and from podcast sessions done over Skype as well.

Hear Samples: Podcast 1 was directly onto my computer and Podcast 2 was via Skype call

My Microphone: Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Microphone

Cost: Currently $311 (I got a little better price from a local dealer here in Seattle)

Pop Filter: Nady MPF-6 6-Inch Clamp On Microphone Pop Filter

Cost: Currently $16.13, but I paid $18.48
Why I Bought This: A pop filter helps to prevent B’s and P’s etc. from popping in the mic.

My Mixing Board: Behringer XENYX1002 10-Channel Mixer

Cost: Currently $59.29, but I paid $75.99
Why I Bought This: I have to plug the speaker cable into a mixing board

Misc Equipment: Behringer UCA222 U-Control Ultra-Low Latency 2 In/2 Out Usb Audio Interface with Digital Output And Massive Software Bundle

Cost: Currently $30.63, but I paid $37.22
Why I Bought This: I don’t have a good sound card in my computer that could accept a red/white audio cable so I had to use this device to take those two cables and convert the signale into something digital via USB.

Cables I Used: 15ft Male To Female Speaker Cable $8.37
Red / White Audio Cable $3.41

What I Could Have Done Different:

I didn’t need to buy a mixing board along with the USB device I had to buy if I had purchased a better audio card for my computer, or if I bought another device that simply takes a standard microphone cable and converts it to a digital signal via USB; however, I went with the above equipment so I could have a little more control over the sound via the mixing board.

You don’t need to spend several hundred dollars on setting up your podcast. You can also just buy a cheap $50 Logitech USB mic instead.

I picked my equipment based on what everyone else running quality podcasts seem to be using including my San Diego friend and fellow podcaster Pat Flynn as well as the Podcast Answer Man (another great resource). There were a few different things I bought that they aren’t using, but I’m pleased with the results so far.

How To Set Up The Podcast In iTunes

With the equipment purchased and out of the way the next thing was to get the podcast ready for publication on iTunes. Here are the steps I took to get my podcast onto iTunes.
Note: I’m a Windows PC user so your steps may be different if you’re using a Mac

Step 1: Record The Audio

For my Skype recordings I’m using a program called Pamela which cost about $30 and records my Skype conversations in .mp3 or .wav format (I just use .mp3). When I make a call through Skype Pamela provides an automatic prompt asking if I’d like to record the call. I hit yes and the call is recorded.

I then use a free program called Audacity to record some additional intro and outro audio as needed. You can also use Audacity to combine your audio files into a single file. Garage band also works very well for this if you have a Mac.

Step 2: Create And Host Your Podcast

You can create and host your podcast on your own server for “free”, but even with my insatiable desire for not spending any money I decided this could be more easily done with a 3rd party service like Libsyn.com. I picked their cheapest $5 a month solution here. This service hosts your files and you can pay for stat tracking for an additional $2 a month, but I found a free workaround that I’ll explain in the next step.

Inside Libsyn you have the option to create a new podcast episode, add your description, upload your audio file and then publish it. Once published this will go to your Libsyn RSS feed. My Libsyn RSS feed URL is http://mmoti.libsyn.com/rss; however, I didn’t use this feed when setting up my iTunes podcast. I used Feedburner instead.

Step 3: Creating Your iTunes Feed URL and Getting Free Stats:

I took my Libsyn RSS feed and put it through Feedburner as a podcast feed:

After doing this I’m able to configure the next things such as picking a category for my feed in iTunes, putting in the description of the podcast etc. and the best part is that using Feedburner for my podcast RSS feed allows me to get some limited stats about the podcast such as how many subscribers I have.

Step 4: Setting Up The Podcast In iTunes:

After I have my Feedburner RSS feed I simply navigated to this URL (note this will open iTunes) and inserted my Feedburner URL which helps to automatically format everything appropriately for iTunes and continued through the on screen steps.

After you submit your podcast to iTunes it takes about 48 hours to hear back. I submitted mine on a Friday and actually heard back on Monday. Overall, the process took me quite a bit of time to get everything figured out but hopefully this step by step tutorial helps shed some light on the steps you need to take to get your podcast up.

Why Podcast?

I’ve explained how I set up my podcast, but I didn’t really cover why I even bothered to create a podcast.

More Fun To Talk Than Write:

The main reason why I wanted to do a podcast is because I don’t like writing that much, but I love talking to people (I used to be in sales back for my old day job). So I wanted a way to create some great content for readers of this blog without having to spend a bunch of time writing something out.

Great Inexpensive Marketing Tool:

I also believe podcasting can be a great marketing tool as well. You’d be surprised by how many people listen to podcasts on just about every subject. I receive a couple emails a week from people who found my blog via the podcast and have become regular readers because of the podcast.

In fact, if you’re trying to build an authority style blog on just about any topic, I highly recommend you consider creating a podcast as just one additional way to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

If you have any questions about my podcast and how I set it up feel free to ask below.

Secret To Making Money Online

This simple secret is what’s lead to all of these other recent successes:

Selling a website in a deal worth $100,000+
Earning over $90,000+ with Amazon’s affiliate program
Getting fired from my day job and then earning over $150,000+ the next year

Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Edit: Thought I’d let you all know what I did yesterday that focused on making money

Created more content for Marketing Oracles
Contacted 5 website owners and put in offers / requested more info to buy their websites
Contacted 3 domain owners and put in offers on domains that I’d like to build websites on
Created content for a website I want ready by the holidays
Hired a developer to create a custom premium WordPress plugin I plan to sell in May

I recently sold Netbook Reviews (one of my larger websites) in a deal worth six figures. I can’t share the specific amount for obvious reasons but needless to say based on the sale of the website and my variety of other online income sources I easily surpassed my 2010 goal to earn more than $150,000 this year. This is very exciting because in the previous year while working a full time sales job I made only $60,000 even though I surpassed my sales plan every single quarter and worked 50 hours a week (and I still managed to get fired hah hah).

The goal of this post is not to brag or anything the goal is to teach you some of the things you should know if you’re trying to build and sell a larger website property for six figures or more. First let’s cover what it takes to build a six figure website and then I’ll tell you how to sell it.

How To Build A Six Figure Website:

If you’re trying to sell a website for six figures or more you need to look at it from the perspective that you’re trying to be the best in your niche. I built Netbook Reviews from scratch back in early 2009 just months after netbooks were introduced to the market. I knew very early on that I wanted to build a true authority style website so I did what came naturally – I worked hard and hustled.

I spent countless hours contacting companies for demo equipment, seeking out news on upcoming models, flying out to industry conferences, writing about netbooks and focusing on being the best independent netbook review focused website possible. I did video based product reviews when most of my competitors would simply rewrite articles they found from CNET or other media giants. The whole time the name of the game was to be the best and to this day the website is one of the best resources to determine which netbook you should buy to meet your needs.

If you want to build something that can sell for a sizeable chunk of money you need to put in a ton of hard work and countless hours to build a website worth six figures or more. There is no push button solution and there is no right way to do it. I could talk for hours about everything I did for this website, but the path will be different for each niche. The main thing I want to get across to you is that it takes a lot of hard work to accomplish this.

How To Sell A Website For Six Figures:

During this sales process I’ve learned a lot about an industry that isn’t talked about very often and can feel very mysterious to outsiders – high end website sales. For example, if I mentioned the word “Flippa” there is a good chance you’d know what I was talking about, but if I mentioned Founders Investment Banking you probably have never heard of them.

There isn’t really a huge well known online marketplace for larger websites worth 100k+ because when you’re dealing with those valuations there’s a lot bigger picture that needs to painted besides displaying screenshots of adsense stats and google analytics data.

In my case, I used an investment banker to help sell the website and they required a ton of information before we even got started. I sent over detailed traffic logs since the inception of the site, income statements from my business records, screen shots of my earnings and an in depth excel spreadsheet outlining the income sources by month in a graphed format. I also included ideas for the new business owner on ways to improve the website’s traffic, earnings, who they could hire for writing etc. It’s also important to find a good fit if you will be working with the new owner during a transition period (which is frequent occurrence when you’re dealing with larger website sales).

Why I Used An Investment Banker To Sell My Website:

Investment bankers have access to people and businesses with money – lots of it. I don’t have access to these people and business because I don’t have enough money to play at their level (yet). So if I have to give a small percentage of the final sale price to someone who provides me access to these buyers that see the value of my website then I think it’s more than worth it. The investment bankers can also provide very good insight into how to structure a deal and take care of negotiating with the buyer. Although I’ve bought and sold plenty of websites in the past having their expertise for my first six figure sale was well worth it.

I don’t have anything against Flippa and have even used them in the past, but they’re not the best place to sell a website worth six figures. I believe they cater more toward website sales under $100k, just look at the high end section of Flippa to see what I mean. Over half the websites are scams/fake with most selling for less than $50k. Simply put, if you want to maximize the value for your website sale you need to find the right buyer that is a good fit for both parties and in my experience investment bankers do a great job of doing that when you’re selling a website for six figures or more.

What To Do With The Money Once You’ve Sold:

Once you’ve sold the website it’s easy (especially if you’re an American) to think you need to go out and spend all of the money on something to reward yourself for doing a good job. Now as much as I’d like to go buy the 2011 Subaru WRX STI in cash and sell my “old” 2008 WRX it would be the dumbest thing I could do.

Instead I plan to reinvest the funds into my business and other projects that I had set aside because of lack of capital. Now that I have some money to work with I will push forward with them in 2011. The goal that I’ve been made fun of for sharing is to buy the Guthrie Castle in 20 years and to improve my odds of doing that I need to take the funds I’ve made here and reinvest them into new projects. The side benefit of reinvesting now is to help limit my massive tax bill. In my case, the sale went through near the end of the year so I’ve been scrambling around looking for deductions and trying to find new websites to buy because as it stands right now I’m going to owe a lot to the government.

The point I’m trying to get across is that if you think about your website sale like the next step in your business and less like a windfall inheritance from a rich uncle you’ll do much better moving into the future.

Need More Specific Advice?

Ever since I sold the website I’ve been doing considerably more consulting and if you need in depth detailed website business advice you should check out my consulting page. As always, if you’re just looking for some quick advice I’m more than happy to answer any emails I receive as well. I should also mention that if you’re looking to sell your website and it’s worth less than $100,000 I might buy it. Fill out the details here: Get Rid Of Your Website

Questions? See you in the comments below.

Note: I found my investment banker via an introduction from someone I met at Elite Retreat. I am 100% certain that without that introduction they wouldn’t have agreed to help sell the website for me. Needless to say it just goes to show again how powerful in person networking events are (even those that cost $5,000 to attend).

Image By AMagill

How Does It Make Money?

Traditionally, this was one of the single most important questions you needed to answer when you started a business before the internet was around. It was generally something that you thought about for hours, days, weeks, months before deciding to launch your business. You would have to include the information in a business plan if you were going to get a loan for the money you needed to help get your business off the ground.

The Internet Business Mentality:

When the internet came along people decided they didn’t need to ever have a plan to make money before launching the business because the barriers to entry were so low. The late 90′s saw dozens of web companies going public that never even turned a profit let alone had a viable business model to survive on. Most of these companies failed and only a few remained after the tech crash, but even now 10 years later I still see people starting online businesses without any idea on how they will ever make money. Call me old fashioned, but unless you have a solid plan on how to make money with your business all you have is something “cool” (aka Web 2.0 companies). This is the same reason why I see so many people failing with their websites today. It takes less than $100 to create a website, throw up some Adsense and hope for an avalanche of clicks to come through. When you don’t make money it’s easy to give up because after all, you spent less than $100 right?

Why I Ask ‘How Does It Make Money?’ For Every New Project:

My First Online Business Experience:
When first I started to try and earn money online five years ago with the launch of my first video game forum I never stopped to figure out how the website could make money. I never did any research on forums beyond the software I needed to run them. I never found out that forums have traditionally the worst click thru rates on advertising and that many advertisers avoid them like the plague. I never stopped to figure out that a video game based forum is even worst for making money because the target demographic is nearly impossible to sell to because they either have little to no money or only buy inexpensive $60 video games. Because I failed to ask these questions the most that website ever made was $500 a month despite the 500,000+ monthly page views at the height of it’s popularity.

Finally, A Viable Business Model:
After several more attempts at running my head into the wall without ever “getting it” I finally decided to branch out and find new potential web business models. I had the unoriginal idea that people are always buying things online so why not provide a gateway between consumers and their shopping destination that provided great advice on what products to buy? This is what lead me to Amazon’s affiliate program and how I earned $40k+ with just Amazon’s affiliate program in 2009 and have earned even more now in 2010. I took what I learned and put it into a training course designed to show people how to build income generating websites which you can see more information about at Niche Profit Course. I did this because I thought other people were probably having the same problems I used to have as well floundering around online without any decent idea to make money online.

Moving Into The Future:
Since then I’ve launched several new projects some of which I’ve discussed on this blog and others that I’ve kept private for the time being; however, the one question I always ask before I launch any for profit venture is “How Does it Make Money?”

Do you?

Get The Seller To Name Their Price:

On the show the hosts always ask something like, “What are you looking to get for this thing?” and the owner of the item either names a price or says “Make me an offer.” The pawn brokers always side step the request to make an offer and instead try and launch probing questions to force a price out of the buyer. Once they know the price they’re looking for they can work their way down from there.

This is important for a couple reasons. It gives them a figure to work down from and an opportunity to laugh about how much money they’re asking for something.

My Business Application: Whenever possible regardless of the position you’re in of seller or buyer your goal should be to get a price from the other party first. I find this most important when I’m contacting hobby domain owners (the people that just happened to register a couple domain names and are still using an AOL or Hotmail email account tend to be these people in my experience and the experienced domainers always have a Gmail account or company name email.)

Get The Seller To Drop Their Price:

The hosts of the show will usually say things like, “We still need to make a profit on this item so even though the expert told you it’s worth $5,000 we can only buy it for $2,000.” or they’ll say things like “The item is pretty beat up, if it were in mint condition than I could give you the price you’re asking for but I still need to spend a few hundred dollars to replace the gears and repaint / restore the item.”

Now after they have the price they are able to go through a laundry list of excuses why the price the seller was asking for is out of line. This is all for the reason to instill the idea in the seller that, ‘Maybe he’s right. Perhaps this isn’t as much as I thought it was worth?’

My Business Application: When I negotiate a purchase of a website or domain name I always try to negotiate the price downward by sharing things like the search volume for the site isn’t high enough to justify their price, the income earnings multiple of 3x they’re asking for is too high etc. If someone is coming to you to sell a domain name or website etc. than you have way more power than if you’re going to them as an unsolicited buyer but the lesson is the same – always try to negotiate downward.

Flip The Power In Your Favor:

Bottom Line: Regardless of whether you’re the buyer or the seller you need to find ways to flip the power into your favor. If you’re still paying the first asking price for anything you’re making a big mistake. Regardless of how firm the seller is you can always find some wiggle room even if it isn’t in the funding department. I’ve been able to put together some creative deals for websites I’ve purchased to keep the owner own for extra time etc.

How I did it and you can too:

I can assure you this growth rate hasn’t come about by accident but instead because I learned from past mistakes, came up with a good plan and then executed that plan effectively. I hope that in reading this you can learn some lessons from me that you can apply towards your blog as well.

Importance of True Knowledge:

The biggest mistake I had when I first launched my blog about earning a living online on ChrisGuthrie.net back in 2007 was that at the time I wasn’t already making a full time income online (not even close). So for almost 2 years I continued to write despite being too foolish stupid to recognize that my growth rate would always be stunted because of the fact that I wasn’t even close to an expert in the niche where true knowledge mattered. What I failed to realize is that when it comes to making money, people don’t want to learn from someone that hasn’t figured it out yet because how can you tell that the advice they give is even worth listening to? So I decided that I needed to quit my blog and focus on other niches where I could become an expert or (better yet) where being an expert didn’t really matter. So that’s what I did and guess what? It worked! I started making substantially more money than I had been before and when I got fired from my job in October 2009 I decided to go full time because I was already making more money than my day job (see my full about story). I made the decision to relaunch my blog on how to make money on the internet now that I was actually (somewhat) successful at doing it.

Takeaway Point: If you’re struggling with gaining new readers on your blog ask yourself honestly if you have the expertise required to cover the topic. If you don’t have the expertise in a niche where it matters than it’s time to sell your blog (or abandon it) and move into a new niche where you have expert knowledge, can develop it easily or where being an expert doesn’t matter.

Have a Good Story To Tell and Be Unique:

When I relaunched my blog I had a good story to tell. I tried writing in this niche before, failed, started making a full time income from other websites and decided to come back to this niche after getting fired from my job in October 2009. This is unique among my peers, but having a good story to tell is only one component that helped me get to 1,000 subscribers. I decided early on that I needed to be different than the other bloggers in my niche. I decided to go against using tons of advertising in and around my blog to show visitors that there was something different about me and I’m not just trying to make $50 selling the Thesis theme. I also knew that most people in this niche frequently write based on emotional ideas and rarely based on facts or raw data. i.e. What good is a list of the top 10 ways to get people to follow you on Twitter if you haven’t analyzed which ones are actually the most effective and which ones are just filler so that the author can use the number 10 instead of the number 6? So in most of the blog posts I write I always try to use data when applicable to prove the advice I’m sharing is worth listening to (i.e. Amazon Tips, Speed up WordPress etc.).

Takeaway Point: What is your story? What makes you different than the other blogs in your niche? If you don’t have an answer to that question you need to rethink your strategy and find a way to be different than the others in your market.

Implement a Marketing Plan

Even though I believe my blog is good and everyone that is earning money online should read it wishing this would happen is not enough. So I spent considerable amount of time marketing the content that I was writing. People say that Content is King, but I’d argue that Content is Queen and Marketing is King. So I focused on both writing great content and more importantly promoting it in as many places as I could. There are still channels that I haven’t explored, but so far I’ve had great success with forums, guest posting, befriending other leaders in my niche and blog commenting.

Takeaway Point: It takes too long for people to find great content. Help this process out by promoting your content as much as possible. As long as you’re providing true value people will be happy you shared something with them. The goal is to get to the place where your content begins to spread itself but the tipping point for when that starts to happen is certainly not before you hit the 1,000 subscriber mark – so get to work!

Wrap Up: What is your blogging plan?

The important thing to remember is what worked for my blog may not work for yours because each niche can be different. I focused on promotional strategies that I know would be effective in this niche because I’ve seen other bloggers use them. However, I also have blogs that I don’t promote via forums, guest posting or blog commenting and they still get good traffic and contribute to my income. The point is that you need to look at the other blogs in your niche, find out what you can do different while still delivering value and then make sure you can get traffic to your blog using the most effective traffic driving strategy for your specific niche.

What do you think of what I’ve shared above? Do you think I can surpass 5,000 subscribers faster than by the end of the year? In either case, I have a very fascinating post ready for later this month on guest posting. Before your groan with displeasure I can assure you that this will be unlike anything else you’ve ever read before. My goal is that it should be the only source of information you should turn to when it learning how to guest post effectively. Subscribe here so that you don’t miss out.

You should also follow me on Twitter as well (my goal is 1,000 followers before the end of the month)

Now because the growth to my blog has been very rapid in primarily the past few months I know most people have not had an opportunity to read some of my older content that I believe is worth checking out. So the list below is of my favorite posts and those that on average have received the most views and comments:

Top 7 tips I used to make $41,438.42 in 2009 with Amazon Associates
Top 5 Worst Ways to Make Money with Amazon Associates
The Amazon posts are what most readers are familiar with and what I use to make most of my income. At the risk of looking like a hypocrite, if I ever do release some type of product it will probably be about how to make the most money with Amazon.

My Top 7 Worst Websites Created
There’s no better way to learn than from experience and in this post I share my worst websites ever created and the lessons I learned from each one.

How I made over $2,000 from one blog post
This was just one of my unique success stories and I have plenty of other experiences like this that are fun to share and packed with actionable lessons.

How to research and buy keyword domain names
This is the process I use to find and buy domain names for development. Although it’s difficult to find keyword domain names at the very least I use this process as research before I approach the current owner with an offer.

How to speed up your blog (the non technical guide)
In this non technical guide I show how I dropped my blog’s page load time from 7 seconds down to just 2.5 seconds. This is well worth checking out especially now that page load time is a ranking factor in Google.

How to use forums to drive traffic to your blog
Part of why I’ve had such strong growth in traffic and new readers to my blog is because of my focus on forums as a promotional tool. In this post I share the strategies I use to promote my blog in forums without looking bad or getting banned.

5 Advantages of in Person Networking
I believe networking in person can be huge for your business which is why I went down to CES this year to meet with some of the top consumer electronic companies in person. I’m doing this again later tonight by going to SMX Advanced in Seattle – hit me up in the comments below or email me if you want to meet me. I’ll be at the event for all three days (June 7th, 8th and 9th).

GoDaddy Free Private Registration Loophole
I love being sneaky and saving money and in this blog post I showed how to do both. Last I checked this still works, but that was about six months ago and I wrote this post actually back in 2008!

Do you really want to make money online?
I used to be addicted to World of Warcraft and in this article I discuss how and why I quit this time sucking game.

My Goals for 2010
Lastly I still get people reading my goals for 2010. I believe it’s very important to set specific and measurable goals so that you can set something to work towards. The primary financial goal I have is to earn $150,000 this year and is primarily why I am running income reports every month.

Upcoming Topics:

I have numerous exciting topics to discuss this month and as usual I will present them in a way you don’t normally see other bloggers do so (with facts and figures based on real numbers). For the regular readers, I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my blog so far in 2010 I appreciate the support and comments that you’ve shared so far. For those of you that are new today don’t forget to subscribe to my blog.

Here is what I learned about outsourcing from these videos:

1. Best way to build a business is with the help from employees: – Great example showing the difference between the Blue Man Group (they hire performers to do the shows for them) and Sigfried and Roy (they don’t hire performers and their business relies on just them to earn money). This is an obvious lesson but one that’s easy to overlook as a solo internet entrepreneur.
2. Hire workers full time: Freelancers earn money inconsistently due to the competition on sites like Elance and Odesk so it’s better to simply outright hire them on full time. This gives them a stable income and you get full time help at a lower price.
3. Avoid outsourcing firms: John mentioned a few horror stories using outsourcing firms and from my research I’ve found that you do have to spend more money if you go this route. So in this case I can see how hiring directly is the best option.
4. Where to find people to hire full time: OnlineJobs.ph, manila.craigslist.com.ph, ask good workers for referrals, hire family members, (Always go direct to the worker)
5. Pay workers via Paypal Mass Payment Feature: Only costs $1 and the receiver is not charged a fee
6. Treat workers well: Should be obvious, but your outsourced workers are people too so treat them well both financially and by challenging them with difficult yet rewarding tasks
7. Provide rough draft samples of what you want done use the Livescribe pen to easily share this info.

You can see all of his videos here and I believe his product launches tomorrow so I’m sure he’ll take down the videos after the program sells out so be sure to watch them for free while you still can. I found the second video “Instant Leverage” to provide the most value for me so if you have time to watch only one I think that video is the best.

I’ve decided to hire someone full time:

I’ve written about outsourcing in the past when it comes to content creation, but I’ve decided to take the leap and implement the free lessons I’ve learned to hire someone full time to help with my business. One of the things I’ve been working on is the niche five figure network which is my attempt to build a network of smaller websites that all together earn five figures a month. I’ve been covering this as a case study, but I’ve decided most of the niche sites I’m building aren’t that hard to create and so I should be spending my time on opportunities with a larger income potential instead of working on mini websites. So I plan to open up a new HostGator account and hire on someone that literally does everything for me (just to be safe I decided a separate hosting account is worth it).

I really do think outsourcing is something I’ve waited way too long to get into and I hope my first hire works out well. I may hire someone just part time so in that case feel free to contact me if you’re interested in splitting the cost on a full time worker.

What do you think about outsourcing? Are you doing it now? If so what challenges have you faced?

Update: Last video is live and the product goes on sale tomorrow May 11th at 1:00 PM PST for those that are interested. Be sure to watch the videos before then if you want to check out the free content.

Disclaimer: If you do decide to buy the OutSource Force product I will be compensated if you do so by clicking through the links above. With that said, I think you can get a ton of free info by simply watching the videos instead like I’ve done and applying the lessons learned to your business.