Image via Wikipedia

I often read books in finance and investing. You may probably have heard of Robert Kiyosaki and his book Rich Dad Poor Dad which is a best seller. However, since he lives in the other end of the world and is probably a very busy man, I do not have the chance to interview him

But what I have to day is another expert. An expert in financial intelligence who is also gaining popularity both in the online and offline world. With his informative financial tips in all aspects of life, he has created a name for himself that could rival Robert Kiyosaki himself in years to come. This expert is no other than Tyrone of www.millionaireacts.com . Let us see what he has to say on his online adventures…

Paolo: So thank you Tyrone for accepting this interview, so how are you doing?
Tyrone: I’m excellent.

Paolo: How long have you been blogging?
Tyrone:I started blogging last year April 2008. But I did not take it seriously. Eventually, November 2008, I came to a decision to have my own domain with a Wordpress theme and take blogging to the next level.

Paolo: Other than blogging, what do you do? Do you have a full-time job?
Tyrone: Yes, I do have a full-time job. I am a Competitive Intelligence Analyst for the Market Insights Team in a multinational BPO firm for a client in the IT industry. I handle Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEEMEA) Region.

Paolo: Do you have any plans to taking this online earning venture to the next level (full-time)?
Tyrone: As of now, I don’t have plans yet. For now, it would be an asset and source of passive income. My short-term goal is to settle abroad. But who knows? As I have an entrepreneurial spirit, I might venture into an online business someday. It depends on the opportunity that will come.

Paolo: How long did it take for you to earn $100 in Adsense?
Tyrone: It took me 8 months before I earned my 1st $100. But when I transferred into my new domain Wordpress themed blog, it took me 3 months to earn the 2nd $100. The third $100 took me 2 months. Hopefully, if God permits, I could earn $100 on a monthly basis.

(Ok now to the meaty part of the interview)

Paolo: No need to give the exact figures but how many digits of income do you earn from Adsense(dollars/peso)?
Tyrone: I earn a little income from Adsense. As I’ve said, I’m averaging 2 months before I earn $100.

Paolo: How many blogs do you have to create that income?
Tyrone: I have two blogs to create that income. But Millionaire Acts is the main contributor around 99%. Although I do have 4 blogs in total, the others don’t have huge visitors.

Paolo: For those starting to blog, what niche do you recommend them take?
Tyrone: Always take the niche that you are passionate with. It’s because if you are passionate with your topic, then it would create a buzz in the blogosphere and you would be recognized. You know what Millionaire ACTS had brought me? I was featured at Good House Keeping Magazine. I was shocked when I received a text message direct from the President and CEO of a major insurance firm inviting me to explore career opportunities with his company. I received a direct call from Canada from the leaders of Max GXL (a networking company) inviting me to be a leader.

One of my blogs is Millionaire SEO (www.millionaireseo.com) but unfortunately, I found myself not passionate about just writing anything for the sake of SEO.

Paolo: How do you look for a profitable niche?
Tyrone: An SEO guru said that Food, Health, and Nutrition blogs have one of the highest CPC. This is followed by finance niche.

Paolo: Do you only do pure seo or do you use PPC as well?
Tyrone: Pure SEO only. And I do entertain direct advertisers also if the offer is good.

Paolo: So how many hours do you allot for SEO per day?
Tyrone: With my current work load, I don’t have enough time to post articles on a daily basis not withstanding the time to compose a finance related article. I just write articles during the weekends. If my time permits during work, I also blog hop and make comments on other blogs.

Paolo: When you say you do SEO, what exactly do you do? Or is this a secret =P?
Tyrone: SEO is Search Engine Optimization. Build good content, link it internally through your posts, link it externally through blog carnivals and other blogs, and promote it both online through social bookmarking sites like digg, yahoo buzz, etc. and offline through your friends and other acquaintances. My blog has been promoted through word of mouth I think because there are some people searching for Millionaire ACTS.

Paolo: How do you optimize for a keyword?
Tyrone: I optimize a keyword first by placing myself in the shoes of a user. If I am a user and will search a topic in the internet using search engines, what would I type? Second, I go to google trends to know if there is a trend for a particular keyword. And third is I do link building both internally and externally as discussed above.

Paolo: Do you think content is King?
Tyrone: Definitely content is KING. It’s where you will create a brand for your site like famous people such as John Chow and Shoe Money. Create a content that will be helpful to your readers because blogging is like a business. Your readers are your clients which are the lifeblood of your business. In my case, I chose finance and business as my niche. You never know who might contact you because of your content. Almost everyone in the world has access to the internet.

Paolo: To the newbies (like me), what do you think is the best step we can do to increase our Adsense incomes?
Tyrone: I’m not an SEO guru like the others such as Randy, the first person you’ve made the interview. But I would suggest that you find a niche that would be helpful to your readers and that would interest you and that you are passionate about. Second is to implement some SEO techniques like link building, etc. And third is to market.

I think that content is king BUT marketing is the queen. You wouldn’t have the motivation to write if there were no readers to your blog even if you write good quality articles.

Paolo: What mistakes do you often see newbies doing in their Adsense campaigns?
Tyrone: They give up easily. We all started in that $0.01 income in Adsense. Don’t give up! That’s why I recommend to choose the niche where you are passionate about. Then next would be the money. Also, experiment with different colors and places of your Adsense. I recently changed one of my Adsense ads to show only pure image ads. Some Adsense guru said that an image ad side by side with a text ad in a good location in your blog would generate nice amount of clicks if you have nice traffic.

Paolo: Who is your Adsense mentor? Do you have one?
Tyrone: Adsense mentor? I think Jehz would be the one. He is one of the famous SEO bloggers here in the Philippines and he literally retired himself from working as he generate enough income to live without working. I think his income is enough to put some executives to shame.

Paolo: How about Infolinks, do you earn from it?
Tyrone: Infolinks? Yeah, I earn very little from it. I started implementing it February of this year. Unfortunately, I think it would take me one whole year to reap a $100 minimum payout. It earns so slow. I think it would just be good if you have really huge amount of traffic in your blog.

Paolo: I often see a lot of newbies get discouraged quite easily when they only see cents in their daily earnings, what message do you have for them?
Tyrone: I think I already answered your question. Don’t give up. And choose your niche.

Paolo: Would you like to thank anyone for helping you when you were a newbie before?
Tyrone: I would like to thank Jehz, for all the bloggers who keep on visiting my blog, for James of Pinoy Money Talk who has a forum that has the same niche as mine, for Rochelle yap who designed my blog, and definitely to almighty God for all His blessings.

Paolo: Any additional tips for anyone wanting to earn an income online?
Tyrone: Choose the niche of your blog with your interests and passions coupled with hard work and discipline

Image via Wikipedia

Do you want to get a credit card? If you do not know how to manage your finances without a credit card I would certainly strongly discourage you from getting one. However, if you can manage your finances quite well and would like added security by way of credit, then by all means get a credit card. If this is your first time getting a credit card you would no doubt have many questions on getting one. You probably would want to know what the best credit card is on the market right now. Or you might be asking what rewards program you should enroll in. Those are all valid and very good questions. But instead of me writing another whole article on choosing your first credit card, I took the liberty of looking for a good article on the net in one of the best article directories, ezinearticles. And without further ado, here is the article entitled “Tips for Your First Credit Card”:

Image via Wikipedia

If you have a gmail account and countless other multiple email accounts and you want your gmail account to be the primary email manager to all of your email accounts you can certainly do so. One way is by setting up each and every email account to automatically forward incoming emails to your gmail inbox. That solves that but what if you want to respond to someone who emailed you on one of your non-gmail accounts and you want to respond using the email address of the email account that got emailed? Yes you could login to that account and respond directly but that would certainly be a hassle for you.

An easier way to do all of the above exists thanks to Google. Instead of automatically forwarding the emails to your gmail account, you can setup gmail to fetch emails from each and every email account that you have! If you want to respond, you can also choose which email persona you want to be! Here are the steps to that cool and easy way to consolidate all your email in one mighty and powerful gmail account:

1. First, login and open your gmail.
2. Then, go to Settings => Account.
3. Click the “Add a mail account you own” link under the “Get mail from other accounts:” pane.
4. Enter the email address of the account to get the email from and click “Next Step”.
5. Enter the Username, Password and POP server of the email account you are getting the email from. The POP server can normally be retrieved from the email account’s settings. Click “Add Account”.
6. If you are successful, you would receive a message on the screen saying so.
7. Now (still in the Settings => Account tab), click the “Add another email address you own” link to setup your other email persona.
8. Enter your name and other email address for that persona and click “Next Step”.
9. The next pane would ask you to verify if the email address you entered in step #8 is really yours by sending you a confirmation code to that email address.
   
10. Get the confirmation code and enter it in the validation box and press Enter.
11. Voila you’re done!

From here onwards, you should be able to receive email from all your other email accounts you have setup this way. You can also respond as if you were in those non-gmail accounts by selecting the persona you want to use from the ‘From’ drop-down box.

Have you ever seen and watched a solar eclipse? If you live in Asia and haven’t experienced one, then you are fortunate because one will occur on the 22nd of July. It is the longest total SOLAR eclipse of the 21st century and according to Wikipedia will not be surpassed until June 13, 2132.

If you are wondering about its trajectory, here it is:

So get ready before then before it’s too late.

Image via Wikipedia

The other day I was looking for a way to convert .wav files to .mp3 format. I tried looking for .wav to .mp3 converters which were free. I found some free softwares in the internet but was disappointed since they only converted a portion of your file and if you want to convert the whole file then you need to buy the full version of the software!

Then I remembered that I had the VLC media player. Not only is it a player but it can do things you would not expect it to do. For example, it can save your DVD movies into a file among many other cool things. So, I tried to see if it can convert .wav files into .mp3 files and what do you know it does. So for those of you who were as frustrated as me in finding such a free software to convert your .wav files into .mp3 then you’ve come to the right place. Just follow the instructions below and you’ll be on your way to .wav to .mp3 file conversion frenzy!

1. First and foremost, you need to have the VLC media player.
2. Once you have it, on the Menu, choose File -> Open File..
3. In the File tab, browse for your file and select it.



4. Still in the File tab, check the Stream/Save check box then click Settings…
5. In the Outputs section, check the File check box, enter the filename of the target converted file and make sure it ends with .mp3 .
6. In the Encapsulation method section, choose Raw.
7. In the Transcoding option section, check the Audio codec check box, choose s16l from the dropdown menu then choose your preferred bitrate(the higher the better quality but bigger file size…)



8. Press Ok twice and start the conversion.
9. Once done then that’s it! Check your file in the directory where your chose to save it.

Those are the steps to convert it to .mp3 . If you want to experiment a bit, you can convert it to different file types other than .mp3 .  Let me know if you have any questions.

PS. Pamela Call Recorder is the call recorder for Skype…

Secrets you say? No more! Gurus and soon to be gurus cannot keep their secrets from me as one of the rising or should I say very fast rising Adsense success stories out there spill the beans once again and show us their primary techniques in earning money with Adsense. It only took him a few months to stardom or should I say financial freedom. This rising Adsense guru is none other than Randy Marasigan of Daily Contributor.

And without further delay…

Paolo:So thank you Randy for accepting this interview, so how are you doing?
Randy:I feel great! Thank you Paolo!

Paolo:How long have you been blogging?
Randy:I started blogging just June of last year but I got into serious blogging when I launched DC (My News blog) in September 2008.

Paolo:Other than blogging, what do you do? Do you have a full-time job?
Randy:I have a day job, I’m currently employed and working as a Systems Engineer for a Japanese company.

Paolo:Do you have any plans to taking this online earning venture to the next level (full-time)?
Randy:Yes definitely! I have big plans and dreams for DC. I want to have more contributors/writers in the future (paid of course). Currently, we (me and my friends) are planning to launch a blog network.

Paolo:How long did it take for you to earn $100 in Adsense?
Randy:I placed my very first AdSense code on my first blog way back in June. I received my first AdSense payment just January of this year and that’s because of DC.

(Ok now to the meaty part of the interview)

Paolo:No need to give the exact figures but how many digits of income do you earn from Adsense(dollars/peso)?
Randy:In dollars, it’s 3 digits per month for the first 4 months but I’m very happy that it became 4 digits last May and June. Our AdSense earnings increases every month but I’m not sure if it will stay that way because I run more CPM ads today that will definitely compete with AdSense CTR.

Paolo:How many blogs do you have to create that income?
Randy:A have a few other blogs but 95% of my income comes from DC.

Paolo:For those starting to blog, what niche do you recommend them take?
Randy:As what other bloggers suggests, start a blog where you can write quality content. You should create a blog with market value and it’s always best to think about branding and your target audience.

Paolo:Do you only do pure seo or do you use PPC as well?
Randy:Only SEO, but maybe I’ll try PPC in the future.

Paolo:So how many hours do you allot for SEO per day?
Randy:I am more of an on-page SEO type of blogger so my answer is every time I create a post. I’m not into link exchange these days. For me, it is much better to get links to your post rather than contacting every blogger and ask for a link exchange.

Internal linking works fine for me.

Paolo:When you say you do SEO, what exactly do you do? Or is this a secret =P?
Randy:Like I’ve said, on-page SEO works best for me. I build links occasionally when I have to rank high on SERP for a keyword (usually for sports events).

My other practice is to submit our articles to social media sites like Digg, Reddit, twitter, and Facebook.

Paolo:How do you optimize for a keyword?
Randy:I build few links and create good content. As a blogger you have to convince yourself that what you are writing is what the searchers and readers would want to see.

Paolo:Do you think content is King?
Randy:Yes! Content really is King but I’m not still quite sure who is the Queen. hehe

Paolo:To the newbies (like me), what do you think is the best step we can do to increase our Adsense incomes?
Randy:I’m also a newbie Paolo but for me, the best way to increase your income is to invite more traffic to your blog because your ads will have a bigger chance to get clicked. Another thing is don’t be afraid to experiment. You can experiment on font sizes, styles, ad positions etc.

Quality Content + Traffic + Good AdSense Positioning = $$$

Paolo:What mistakes do you often see newbies doing in their Adsense campaigns?
Randy:
1. Spamming! I hate spammers promoting their site on other blogs.

2. Click their own ads

3. Blackmailing bloggers – A blogger commented on my blog and her it is:

“Hello there. PLease visit my site and click on my ads or else I will click your ads 100 times you will be banned from google adsense! Do this just one click on my google ads ok? This is my address: “URL HERE”

I copied the comment verbatim.

To all AdSense publishers, please don’t do this!

Paolo:Who is your Adsense mentor? Do you have one?
Randy:Experience is the best mentor but if you want to expedite the process, read blogs of successful AdSense publishers like Darren Rowse (ProBlogger.net) and Jeremy Schoemaker (ShoeMoney.com).

Use Google!

Paolo:How about Infolinks, how did you come to know about it?
Randy:I learned about Infolinks when I landed on Zalds blog (Zalds.com) and got convinced by Dexter’s Infolinks post on Techathand.net I’m very happy with Infolinks now. I actually created a report about it and it was posted on my personal blog (randymarasigan.com).

Paolo:I often see a lot of newbies get discouraged quite easily when they only see cents in their daily earnings, what message do you have for them?
Randy:You just don’t have to expect to earn from a new blog. Before I started DC, I only expected to earn from it after 6 months though I earned after 3 months.

Just don’t get discouraged early, almost all of AdSense gurus out there started with $0.01.

Paolo:Would you like to thank anyone for helping you when you were a newbie before?
Randy:First,I want to thank Ron of (rondelrosario.com). He introduced me to blogging, helped me to upload my site online and writes occasionally for DC. I also want to thank the pro-bloggers out there that keeps on giving us free source of information.

I also want to thank all the Pinoy bloggers who are visiting my blogs. Thanks!

Paolo:Any additional tips for anyone wanting to earn an income online?
Randy:If you can’t handle it by yourself, get a partner or hire someone to work for you. It’s better to be on top with someone rather than get there alone. Just don’t expect too much when you have just started.

Keep on blogging!