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Fairly unanimous I guess. I’m not happy with the outcome as I really wanted to add this for January and may still do it. It was worth doing the Poll to gauge some opinions.

Some quick news, we have been having hosting issues which have now been fixed and also the new theme is getting closer. Again I wanted so many features I have had to drop some just to get the theme Live!

I would like to thank Hostgator for being a great host, although I have given them a bit of grief this month. I will be leaving them next month but I still have a Reseller Plan with them which I have had since 2005 and never had any issues with (small downtime). I really like that fact these guys are available at anytime day or night which is good to know in a Host.

You need to have confidence in your host as these guys hold your business up online. When you site goes down you lose visitors and or money

Just in case you want to know, I have a Dedicated Server on NetBusinessBlog.

Spec:

Processor Pentium 4 2.4Ghz
DDR Memory 1024mb
Hard Drive 80gb SATA
Bandwidth 1500GB
Monthly Price $174.00

HostGator have 20% off until January 1st - you can get this plan for just $139.20 using Coupon Code “SNOWMAN” in the checkout.

Note: The only reason I’m leaving them is because I have bagged a fully managed plan with some of the guys I use in the UK. Otherwise I was happy enough with Hostgators Dedicated Plans.

In my next update, I will be letting you all know how I’m getting on building my Mini Niche Forum

Foregone conclusion I would say, although I didn’t get a huge number voting. It seems you do have a good conscience and realise if you’re to make money online, a sustainable business should be adopted.

I think we can all make some money online (just put something on eBay) - to make a living, a brand, a respectable business you must plan, understand your market and execute it with good solid planning and hard work!

If you stay focused on one idea you will 99% of the time succeed - if you delve into lots of different little money making ideas you will inevitable keep doing this until you get tired and leave the net or get very lucky and hit the jackpot with an Affiliate program that pays thousands for little cost. (how many actually do this??)

I cannot multitask that well so I’m sticking with just a few projects that are based around building brands. I like to also make money but this is purely for testing and if something sticks I move with it. I never put much effort into the Make Money (cough SCAM eBooks and digital products out there).

It’s been a while since the last poll eh? The last one, How Important are Forums?, resulted in some numbers that pretty much correlated with the comments I got on it. For the most part people think forums are just optional. Although I think most websites will benefit from having forums, I know plenty of people who added forums long after their sites became popular and profitable. At the end of the day it’s just a hard factor to measure. In any case, here are the results!

Now it’s time for a new poll (yay, right?)! I’ve been getting some mixed responses, as was to be expected, to my latest series on business ethics and how they affect internet marketing in the public eye. Personally I always put ethics above profit, but that could be one of the reasons why I’m not a 6 figure earner. It’s one of the biggest questions not only in internet marketing but in business in general. However with the anonymity of the internet the ethics commonly practiced in business for the sole purpose of saving face tend to go out the window and we’re left with a much more raw version of business.

So what I’d like to ask you, my faithful readers - Do Ethics Affect Your Business Decisions?

What do you guys think? Does the consumer’s experience matter? Or is the only important factor your bottom line? I’m not going to criticize anybody who responds no matter how their opinion may differ from mine, so please feel free to comment and let me know how you really feel!

Sorry for the delay in updating the poll. There’s been so much going on with not just NBB but the case study as well (there will be a very delicious update this Saturday!) that I just haven’t had time to get around to changing it. Here are the results from the last poll:

The crowd has spoken - 63% of my readers don’t think I should be required to label my affiliate links. We’ve already had a discussion on this over here so I won’t go into it again. However, since I do aim to please I won’t be labeling my affiliate links from here on out. I think I will put a disclaimer in the About page just for good measure though.

Onto the next poll! This one should also spark a bit of debate: How Important are Forums? Since you’ve been a webmaster I’m sure you’ve heard time and time again “forums add value!” Now that we seem to be in a growing bubble forums are seeing price tags far above your typical website. But how valuable are they really? Does every website need a forum? You guys tell me.

About a week ago I asked Is SEO Easy? You guys responded with 100 votes (the most I’ve ever gotten on a poll). Here are the results:

Mostly Easy took it with 47 votes (47%) but Mostly Difficult was on its coattail with 30 votes. Very Difficult got smashed with only 5 votes. Here’s what some of the readers had to say about the topic:

In my opinion search engine optimization is far away from being easy. Easily you can only attack phrases like “french processed cheese rocks” ;-) - Florchakh

I think it’s mostly easy for people that know web development (like myself), but if you don’t then you’re going to have a tough time with it… so I think it’s mostly difficult for most people, but I voted mostly easy. :D - Ryan

I personally voted for Mostly Easy (as you can tell). I believe that SEO in general can be done by anybody with relatively little knowledge. In addition there are a ton of great SEO resources out there (like SEOBook) that lowers the learning curve tremendously. However, as with everything there is a point in SEO where it becomes much more difficult and harder to rank. Anything competitive cannot be easy across the board. You’re always going to have people at the top who make their careers out of this stuff and make it hard when you get to their level. For the most part though I think SEO is fairly easy. If you do the basic on-site stuff (keyword density, domain considerations, etc) mixed with some healthy link-building I think you’ll do fine. But if you want to be on page 1 on Google for phentermine you have a lot of work to do.

Anyways, onto the next poll: How Should I Label My Affiliate Links? As always you can just cruise on down to the bottom of my sidebar on the right to participate! This poll directly impacts your reading experience here so I hope you all take a second to vote and let me know what you think!

The results for our last poll (What Do You Think of Conferences?) are in. The overall opinion was that they are Worthless. I sort of expected to see this coming, but I’m still kind of surprised to see that Good Networking didn’t bring in more of the votes. From the people I’ve talked to everyone pretty much seems to agree that networking is just about the only reason to go to these things. That then brings up the question of why pay $1k going to a conference (when the speakers are usually subpar) when you could rent out some group meeting hall for a couple hundred bucks (total), get some food catered, and just let everyone talk for a couple of days?

Anyways, it’s time for the next poll: Is SEO Easy? I’m not going to give my personal opinion on this until the poll is over because I don’t want to influence it. This has been debated a ton by a lot of people in the community, but now I want to see what my readers think. As always, you can vote by scrolling down the sidebar on the right.

Well the poll question for the last couple of weeks has been “Which Affiliate Program do you Prefer?” Here are the results:

It’s no question that Commission Junction smashed the others with 47% of the total votes. I think it’s mostly due to their huge product and link selection. You can almost always find a CJ offer for any affiliate market campaign you want to run.

The next poll running is “What do You Think of Conferences?” In today’s world of internet marketing, SEO, blogging, and so many other ways of making money online, there have been a huge number of conferences springing up trying to provide a learning place for webmasters to network and share ideas. The question is, how effective are these? Some people in the industry swear by them and others chalk them up as nothing more than “another networking opportunity.” What’s your take on them?

You can vote using the poll on the sidebar.

I’m really happy that there were so many votes on our first poll, and I hope there will be that much activity on the next. Here are the results from the previous poll:

As you can see most readers thought eCommerce Sites had the most money making potential. I can’t say I disagree with this. eCommerce Sites have huge potential to be real cash cows; however, they also require a ton of work. If you’re willing to do the work then you can certainly make an eCommerce Site work. I’ll be posting another entry soon elaborating on running an eCommerce Site as well as interviewing a young entrepreneur who’s made a name for himself in the field.

Be sure to participate in the new poll (on the sidebar): Which Affiliate Program do you Prefer?