Cash The Checks

Background Information..

My name is Eddie, owner of Cash The Checks. I’m a 25 year old who went from rags to riches becoming an internet entrepreneur. I had no knowledge of HTML nor marketing. I had $0 in my pocket. I didn’t even have the internet. Here’s a look at my journey..

The Beginning..

I got myself a desktop computer that was expensive at the time, but now isn’t worth more than $50. I got my hands on a “Juno free trial internet CD”. When my free trial ran out, I got a free trial with AOL. When that ran out, I finally became a paying AOL member. I wouldn’t be caught dead using AOL now, but you gotta start somewhere.

Just for fun, I created small simple sites at Angelfire.com using their templates. Whenever I saw a cool effect on some page I came across, I’d view the source of the page, find it, then copy it onto mine. After seeing codes long enough, I began to learn how to code myself. Just simple HTML and nothing else.

I began to see there was a potential to make money online. Here’s how I began. First there was a membership to FreeRide.com, where you get “points” for filling out surveys, visiting advertisers and subscribing to newsletters, which can be redeemed for gift certificates. A membership with All Advantage was next, I think they paid $0.60 per hour to have an ad running at the bottom of your screen while surfing. Then Spedia.com was next, which was the same type of company. There was PhoneHog.com which gave you free phone cards in exchange for viewing advertisers’ websites. I was a member of MyPoints.com as well which gives you points for clicking ads sent to your e-mail which can be redeemed for gift certificates. These types of services were everywhere back in the day.

My introduction into the affiliate world..

None of these things directly led to me making any decent money though, just freebies and some lunch money. But the knowledge and experienced gained was priceless. I realized that the way to make money online was through affiliate sales. Since I had no real business ideas nor any capital, making a simple website with a link to a sponsor was the way to go. Free hosting accounts were easy to find, I had an angelfire account, a tripod account and an account with 8op.com, which offered free bannerless hosting at the time. My first real sponsor was CDNow.com selling CD’s. While I didn’t make a sale with them, it taught me how the sponsor-affiliate relationship works. Now there’s much bigger affiliate programs like ShareAShale.com, CommissionJunction.com, Amazon.com and Google Adsense.

Advertising..

Free traffic is always the best kind of traffic, but it’s hard to get. So paying for it was the best alternative. It was at this time I was introduced to Google Adwords, Overture (now Yahoo! Search Marketing), and Findwhat (now Miva) and Kanoodle. These PPC SE’s (pay-per-click search engines) allowed me to purchase traffic and direct it straight to the sponsor. So not even a website was necessary. It’s not as easy as it sounds, there was click-fraud, trial and error, biddng wars and many negative ROI (return on investment) campaigns. You have to know how to write an effective ad, how to properly utilize capitalization, action words to drive buyers (not browsers/clickers/lookers) to your ad. Other methods of advertising included link trades, directory submissions and social networking sites.

Online Entrepreneurship..

Next up came the creation of dozens of websites. Each one created in a few days, costing only the value of the domain, hosting and the labor (time is money). Advertising expenses were also kept at a minimum to start. Sites with little to no maintenance, making a few dollars every day was the goal here. I’ve always believed it’s better to have 100 small businesses (sites) making you $10 a day profit rather than having one which makes you $1,000 per day. Why? Some sites work, some don’t. Some get top Google placements, others don’t. It’s always trial and error. You can see some of my sites at Ethernity Internet, where I sell ad spots using PayPal.

Future Business Ventures..

Here’s my short list of ideas.. Create a real estate site where real estate agents can list their properties for sale. Another similar idea is to do the same thing for cars. Other than that, I’ll continue to develop my previously established sites/ideas such as an offensive tshirts site, a wedding planning guide site, a weight loss ebook, a DVD review blog and a gadget review site as well. I’ll mostly be doing more advertising and developing my established sites in 2007 instead of mass-building sites, because this quote doesn’t apply to online businesses: “if you build it they will come”. Without making an effort to get your product out to the public, noobdy will ever see it.

Biggest Mistakes I’ve Made..

“Leaving money on the table”
I have an idea, I research it, I begin to implement it, but never get finished with the project, so all the work done is wasted until the project gets done. Instead, I should finish everything I start.

“It’s not good enough”
A new site is created and finished, but I hesitate to advertise it heavily, because I feel it can be better, and I don’t want to send people to an “unfinished” or “imperfect” site. I’d rather not have any traffic rather than having it and losing it. Instead, I should realize that nothing will ever be perfect, and you don’t make any money unless you advertise it.

“Find your niche”
I still have not found my “niche” yet. I have sites in many different diverse fields, yet I’m not a “leading authority” in any one of them. If I had just chosen one niche, then created many micro niche sites, I’d have good “authority”, “PR” and “notoriety” in the field. I have tiny fish in many seas. Instead, I should have big sharks, and all sorts of fishes in just a few seas.

The future of internet marketing..

With “social” sites like MySpace, YouTube, Digg & Flickr, the internet is a more personal experience, so the future of internet marketing will be more personal as well, and that means that the future of internet marketing is: viral marketing. The way to get the word out about your site isn’t about paid advertising anymore, but through “virtual word of mouth” methods. It’s the way it should have always been. Create good sites and good products and they’ll get bookmarked & shared.

Contact Me…

To inqure about advertising or link trades or anything else, fill out the form at the Cash The Checks Advertising info page and I’ll get back to you. I’m flexible about ad specifications so let me know what you’re looking for and I’ll make it happen.