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Gittin' down in Chitown

Wed, 24 Jul 2008 06:13:19 GMT

posted by bhartzer

Guess what, bammas? I'm in Chitown! Yup, for the first time in my life, I have ventured out to the midwest. It's not as scary as I thought. At least it hasn't been so far.

I'm in Chicago for the UNITY conference, a conference for minority journalists. I actually attended the conference back in 2004 in Washington DC and it was an amazing experience. In 04, John Kerry and George Bush came to speak at the conference. Needless to say, Bush's reception was a bit chilly. But hey, at least he had the balls to show up and spit in our faces collectively.

Barack Obama is scheduled to speak here in Chicago, but I don't know if I'll be able to catch him speaking. Originally, he and John McCain were scheduled to speak in a forum on Thursday, but both campaigns had other plans and skipped out on it.

Since I'm at the conference, posting might be light for a little while, but I'll try to keep up. Holla if you see me!

P.S. Did you know Chicago has a really big lake? No, for real, Lake Michigan looks like a damn ocean. When I saw as we were flying in I was thrown back by it.

Struggling with the concept

Wed, 24 Jul 2008 12:26:38 GMT

posted by bossdean
I am struggling with the concept of making money with my blog. The above tips do work and are a fantastic insight as how to publicize and monetize your daily scribblings. I want to make this a more public journey and see and how long it is before I earn a hundred pounds (approx $200). I have become an affiliate of adbrite and sky so therefore the said ads will be appearing on all my blogs. The commission rate for sky is mindboggling for anyone who does sign up online and could become an interesting income stream. My mind is now telling me that I need to set up a number of blogs to capitalise on this but is there enough hours in the day? I will continue to update on a regular basis.

Dallas-Based Homebuilder Takes Aim at Energy Efficiency

Thu, 18 Jul 2008 14:51:17 GMT

posted by bhartzer

Centex Corporation (NYSE:CTX) has recently announced the Centex Energy Advantage, a suite of energy-efficient features standard in all Centex homes built nationwide by January 2009. The initiative is expected to have positive, long-term benefits for the company’s homebuyers and the environment.

Centex commissioned the NAHB Research Center to conduct a study modeling the energy efficiency of Centex Energy Advantage-equipped homes. The NAHB Research Center concluded that Centex Energy Advantage homes in the study demonstrated an improvement in energy efficiency of up to 22 percent over comparable homes built to the most widely used energy efficiency code (the 2006 International Energy Conservation Code). When compared to the energy efficiency of a typical 10-year-old home (as defined by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Building America Program), the Centex Energy Advantage homes in the study were shown to be up to 40 percent more energy efficient.(1)

A special feature of the Centex Energy Advantage is an in-home energy monitor. Energy monitors provide real-time information about electricity usage and expense and show the effect of turning on and off various electrical components. Based upon the published studies reviewed by the NAHB Research Center, homeowners who use energy monitors to actively manage their consumption of electricity can reduce their electricity use by 4-15 percent. Centex is the first national homebuilder to announce the installation of an energy monitor in every home it builds.

Features of the Centex Energy Advantage standard package include:(2)
— Energy monitor
— Whirlpool or KitchenAid brand ENERGY STAR(R) qualified appliances
— Lennox high-efficiency HVAC system(3)
— Programmable thermostat(s)
— Low-emissivity windows
— Radiant-barrier roof decking(4)
— R-38, R-40 or R-60 attic insulation (varies by climate zone)
— Compact fluorescent lights in high-traffic areas
— Information for maximizing energy efficiency and minimizing the
impact of home operation on the environment

According to the NAHB Research Center, each Centex Energy Advantage home will produce 1.78 fewer metric tons of carbon per year than a comparable home built to 2006 IECC standards. If the same amount of carbon were released, it would be roughly equivalent to:(5)

— Greenhouse gas emissions from the family automobile for four months
— CO2 emissions from 183 gallons of gasoline consumed
— Annual carbon absorption by more than one-third acre of pine or
fir forest

The cumulative effects are significant. For every 10,000 homes Centex builds each year, 17,800 fewer metric tons of carbon could be released than from comparable homes built to 2006 IECC standards. If the same amount of carbon were released, it would be roughly equivalent to:(5)

— Greenhouse gas emissions from 2,957 passenger vehicles in one year
— CO2 emissions from 1.83 million gallons of gasoline consumed
— Annual carbon absorption by 3,670 acres of pine or fir forest

For its most recent fiscal year, the Company sold nearly 25,000 homes.

Dallas-based Centex, founded in 1950, is one of the nation’s leading home building companies. Its leading brands include Centex Homes, Fox & Jacobs Homes and CityHomes. In addition to its home building operations, Centex also offers mortgage, title and insurance services. Centex has ranked among the top three builders on FORTUNE magazine’s list of “America’s Most Admired Companies” for nine straight years and is a leader in quality and customer satisfaction.

CENTEX ENERGY ADVANTAGE
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Why did you decide to do this now?

We are in the process of a comprehensive redesign of our product line. One of the key principles of our new designs is energy efficiency. Our customers — many of them first-time homebuyers — are very conscious of the impact higher energy costs have on their costs of living. By making our homes more energy efficient and distinctive, we’ll satisfy our customers’ needs and help the environment.

Why did you choose this combination of components?

Centex chose the features included in the Centex Energy Advantage based on company and independent research indicating customer preference and each component’s proven results of efficiency savings.

Some states and localities have efficiency requirements that differ from those provided by this package. How will you implement this package in those areas?

The Centex Energy Advantage is our national standard. Centex will continue to provide additional materials and components as required by state and local regulations or laws.

How will this affect the price of your homes?

It would cost an individual homeowner thousands of dollars to add the Centex Energy Advantage features to an existing or recently purchased new home. We are able to greatly reduce that cost by making the Centex Energy Advantage standard in every home we build. We believe the Centex Energy Advantage will differentiate our homes from competitors. We intend to reinforce that value proposition by offering these features as standard and keeping our prices competitive.

(1) This study evaluated the energy efficiency gains attributable to the Centex Energy Advantage features in a variety of single-family floor plans typical of the Centex product line in the climate zones where the Company currently operates. Not all floor plans, building materials or construction techniques were evaluated in the study. Efficiency gains will vary for other plan types, building materials, construction techniques and change of climate zone.

(2) The Centex Energy Advantage will be supplemented or otherwise adjusted as required by state and local codes. In several markets, Centex is currently building homes with components that exceed the combined efficiencies provided the Centex Energy Advantage.

(3) 14-SEER air conditioning or 90-percent AFUE furnace, depending upon climate zone. SEER is “seasonal energy efficiency ratio,” a measure of seasonal or annual efficiency of a central air conditioner or air-conditioning heat pump that is the average BTUs of cooling delivered for every watt-hour of electricity used by the heat pump over a cooling season. AFUE is “annual fuel utilization efficiency,” a measure of average combustion efficiency in a furnace or heating unit.

(4) By climate zone, as indicated by ENERGY STAR requirements.

(5) Calculations are based on NAHB Research Center estimated efficiency of 1.78 metric tons of CO2 per home equipped with Centex Energy Advantage features, as determined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s “Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator” (see www.epa.gov).

7 tips to generating income from your blogs

Tue, 23 Jul 2008 11:51:00 GMT

posted by bossdean
How to Make Money Blogging: 7 Tips to get you started

You can make money from blogging. It can pay for your bills. It does work for everyone. There’s no secret and you’ll just really need to know how to get started and which blogging framework to follow.

It’s not a difficult process at all and this post will provide 7 distinct methods you can use to generate substantial income from blogging. These seven methods are strategies you can adopt right from the beginning, preferably before you set up your first blog.

You can think of them as guidelines which point out the different options you have, if you’re serious about using blogging as a method of making money online.

1. The “Flagship” or Big Blog Route

This is simultaneously the most profitable and most time-consuming blog venture. The flagship method directs all your focus on a few blogs in order to make them incredibly popular in their niche. Flagship blogs should have a large audience as well as high daily visitor traffic numbers.

These type of big blogs have a wide variety of monetization options with direct advertising sales being a big part of it. Know that not everyone can successfully create a big blog so attempt this route only if you absolutely believe that you have the networking skills, niche knowledge and marketing know-how that’s needed.

* Benefits: Fame as well as more monetization options/potential for your blogs, alongside personal satisfaction. Another advantage is that big blogs usually market or promote themselves automatically once a certain level of fame has been achieved.

* Disadvantages: Very time-consuming especially if you are not outsourcing the content creation or marketing duties. Expect a lot of work and experiment with creative promotional ideas if you decide to go this route.

2. The “Pay per Post” or Get Paid to Blog Route

This is rather simple. Set up multiple niche blogs on either your own domains or free blog hosts like Blogger. Maintain them over a period of time and focus on writing content and building up their Google PageRank, link profile and Alexa Rank.

Submit all of your blogs to multiple get paid to blog websites like Blogitive, Blogsvertise, Review Me, Sponsored Reviews, PayperPost, LoudLaunch and then start writing sponsored posts. I highly recommending using PayperPost as they simply have the largest amount of paid offers available.

* Benefits: The greatest strength of this method is that you don’t even need a large audience to make money. 20 people could be visiting and reading your blogs everyday and you’ll still be able to make at least $15 a day from each blog. If skillfully done over multiple blogs, this method can allow you to easily make over $1.5 K a month.

* Disadvantages: No passive income. You’ll need to spend time writing multiple sponsored blog posts, which can be boring and time consuming. Work will also be needed to maintain your multiple blogs, although that will be minimal after they have been optimized and running for some time.

3. The Automated Blogging or Splog Route

Automated blogging involves the setting up of blogs which automatically pull content from RSS feeds, search engines and news sources to serve as content on your website.

Some bloggers set this to pull partial excerpts of RSS feeds, which does go against some copyrights and one can choose to only include excerpts with a link back to the site in question. Monetization for automated sites is usually done through contextual ads like Google Adsense or affiliate programs.

* Benefits: Very little work needed to maintain these blogs as they do not need you to actively generate or write content. You might need to do a little SEO and regular maintenance now and then. Try if you are adventurous.

* Disadvantage: A weak potential for profit unless you understand the entire process perfectly and if you have quite a large number of blogs.I estimate that a fully automated blog will make you around $5 a month although the actual value depends on the niche and your skills. Assuming that this is so, you’ll need 1,000 blogs to make around $5000 a month. Splogs dwell in ethically gray areas as well.

4. The Text Link Selling Blog Route

The main bulk of your income through this method comes from selling text links to various webmasters and businesses who want to improve their site ranking in Google. While text link selling works for the flagship or other blog models as well, sites can be primarily built for text link sales as well.

The overwhelming emphasis here is on Google PageRank and niche relevancy so you’ll need to focus on these two factors. You can either convert a domain into a text link and sponsored post selling blog or you can purchase a domain with existing PageRank to sell text links for a quick buck. I suggest looking for link buyers directly through webmaster forums.

* Benefits: Selling text links or contextual text links is rather easy and doesn’t involve much work. Potential for profit will correspond to your Google Page Rank and niche. A site with a high PageRank and a profitable niche (mortgages, credit cards) will be very attractive to link buyers. Like paid review blogs, traffic is not a factor in these blogs as well.

* Disadvantages: Over Reliance on the Google PageRank algorithm means that your income may rise or fall depending on your actual Page Rank. There may also be a limit to the number of links you can sell which leads to an income ceiling.

5. The Made-for-Adsense or Made-for-Affiliate-Program Route

This involves setting up a blog around a specific topic with moderately high priced keywords (e.g. teeth whitening, car loans). You’ll only need to create around 25 keyword rich articles on the topic, optimize it for search, set up Adsense or affiliate programs and then leave them alone.

The main emphasis is on building links to the specific webpages, according to the long tail keywords you want to target. Search engine visitors will then find your blog and either click on the ads or convert on a product.

* Benefits: Not a lot of time involved as you can usually contract an experienced writer to develop the keyword rich articles. Not much time is needed to update the blogs as well and new material can be added on a bi-weekly or even monthly basis.

* Disadvantages: There might be a lot of competition in a profitable niche and search traffic might not lead to sufficient income, unless you go for volume and set up dozens of similar websites in other niches as well.

6. The Blog Network or Contract Blogging Route

This involves joining a blog network and getting paid to maintain and create content for blogs. You’ll get paid according to the amount of pageviews, possibly receive a token base fee in the hundreds or a share of the blog’s ad revenue.

* Benefits. Relatively stable monthly income because of the base fee. Contract work usually leads to more freelance blogging or writing assignments because of your proven ability or association with a specific organization.

* Disadvantages: Why bother? If you’re that good at creating and promoting a blog, set up your own website and keep all the profits. However, it is useful to note that a lot depends on the type of network or contract agreement you receive.

7. The Blog-as-Marketing or Branding Route

This method will only apply if you own an online business or provide a freelance service like web design, copy writing or marketing consultation. A blog can be used to help promote your personal or business brand and attract more customers.

This is an indirect method of making money. Ideally, this sort of a blog shouldn’t be plastered with ads or paid reviews because it can tarnish the image of the brand.

* Benefits. A blog can help your brand or business to develop much more search visibility because it allows you to easily create more fresh content that caters to specific demographics as well.

* Disadvantages. Your blog will only be as useful as the quality of the service or product you are pushing. The amount of money you earn doesn’t entirely depend on the quality of the blog but the value of your service/product as well. Income is therefore indirect and can be inconsistent.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are several strategies you can choose if you’re interesting in making money from blogs. To ensure maximum success, be sure to pick one that suits your personal schedule, skill level and interests.