Make Money Online with Brandon Hopkins

Here is a list of the RSS feeds I read daily:

ProBlogger Blog Tips

Darren Rowse gives great tips for increasing traffic. Most posts are specific and don’t focus on him. He is starting to ask more questions of his readers which I don’t care about…

Take More Risks

I like Matt’s goal setting and how much information about reaching those goals he gives. He will eventually be a pretty big player in the SEO arena if he can stay motivated.

Jim Boykin’s Internet Marketing Blog

Jim Boykin gives priceless tips and tricks that have earned me more money than I can measure. Even though he doesn’t post often, it is always a great feed to keep.

Jay Profeit’s Blog

Jay Profeit doesn’t just focus on websites and ROI, but looks at investing at large through the stock market and websites. Jay sets goals and tracks them on his blog. I like goals and seeing people meet them if they can.

Earners Blog: Get in the Know

I am a late comer to the Earners Blog, but the archives are the most valuable asset to this blog. I can’t stop myself from having 10 windows open every time I visit the site. If you are looking for ideas to make money online, this is the place.

SEO BlackHat: Black Hat SEO Blog

I don’t do anything black hat, but this blog puts a different perspective on my marketing plans. It keeps it interesting.

Digg / Technology

I like Digg, what can I say?

BittBox

This has become one of my favorite blogs. He always gives free downloads and resources for Adobe Illustrator. I have used many of the free downloads at various sites.

Search Engine Optimization - SEO Refugee Blog

SEO Refugee is a great site that deals with being Dugg, running a forum, and starting a new site from scratch and getting massive traffic.

Here’s a screenshot of my Google homepage:

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As a Mac-using webmaster, I always have co-workers and friends asking what programs I use.

So here they are:

Design:

Adobe Photoshop CS2 - I can create anything that I need to and love using tutorials to learn more.

Adobe Illustrator CS2 - I don’t know much of anything about Illustrator except that I should be using it for logo’s since it is vector based. I can however follow a tutorial.

Code:

Smultron (Text editor) - I tried a few of the paid text editing programs, and they didn’t do anything more than Smultron (for the stuff that I do). So I stuck with Smultron. It is very lightweight and easy to use.

Dreamweaver 8 - Don’t really know much about Dreamweaver, I’ve never used any tools like it before, and don’t know if it really has a place in my life with all of the free templates available, and the ability of my developers to turn a PSD (Photoshop) into CSS/XHTML (or Wordpress) in just a few days.

Adobe GoLive - As with Dreamweaver 8 I don’t really know much about GoLive except that the default code is heavy.

FTP:

Cyberduck - Cyberduck is without a doubt the best FTP program I’ve used. At first I didn’t like the layout and wanted something with side-by-side windows like I was used to on my PC. After using a few of the side-by-side programs with limited success, I tried Cyberduck. I stuck with it because it actually worked, when all of the others crashed. Now I like the fluid interface and it’s ability to interact with Mac OS X instead of residing on top of it.

Misc:

Firefox - Crashes all the time, can’t seem to avoid the spinning beach (pizza, colored) ball (wheel, circle).

Entourage/Gmail - email for work and personal.

iTunes/iPhoto - Managing music and pictures.

Quicken 2006 - Horrible for my business but it was free. It won’t print invoices, and doesn’t really have a way to track them. Good for personal finance.

Apple Remote Desktop - Absolutely necessary for managing multiple computers across multiple campuses.

NetRestore Helper - Create and deploy an image of a computer. My smallest image (full version of Mac OS X 10.3.9 with apps) is 750 mb’s. Yes, I’m proud of that!

Microsoft Office 2004 - Excel and Word mainly.

That’s about it. For a more complete list of the programs I have installed check out this post. Have a program to recommend? I’d love to hear it!

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This blog is going to be undergoing a change. A change for the better. It is going to be more of an insight into my life online.

Here is a little about me:

I’m married with one daughter who is almost a year old. With this new addition to my life, I know it is going to change. My wife is a wonderful woman, and I couldn’t have designed a more beautiful, understand, supportive and loving woman. She is perfect, and perfect for me.

Here is some info about my life online:

I have about 100 websites, all in very tiny niches. The goal of all of these websites is to generate revenue. With this revenue I live my life. I do have a 40hr/week job, but this is my hobby and passion. One day I would like money from my websites to equal or exceed my day job. I wouldn’t leave my 40hr/week job because I enjoy what I do. This would just be a wonderful addition to my income. The most money I’ve ever made in one month is over $3k, and the least I’ve ever made in one month was about $60.

Tools I use:

I’m a Mac convert. I never thought I would be, but I am, and I can’t go back to a PC. There are too many time saving shortcuts and programs that I use on a daily basis. I can do almost everything (except typing) without using my trackpad, that saves me hours every month.

Aside from the MacBook Pro in general I use:

Cyberduck (FTP)
Smultron (text/php editor)
Adobe Photoshop CS2
Adobe Illustrator CS2
Dreamweaver 8 (Don’t really use it much, but I have it)
Final Cut Pro (still learning)
Quicken 2006 (not recommended for a business) for my business because it came free with my MacBook Pro
Firefox 2 (whatever the latest version is)
iTunes
iPhoto
iMovie HD
iDVD
Microsoft Entourage (work email and the full Office 2004 suite)
Gmail (personal email)
x3mac (accountability software)

40/hr week job apps (I work in education so many of these are edu specific):

Apple Remote Desktop (I manage 800+ clients and 5 servers)
Onyx
PlistEdit Pro
TinkerTool
Automater
BatChmod
ffmpegX (convert video files from my HDD camcorder)
Iceberg (makes .pkg’s for deployment
NetRestore (Thanks Mike Bombich, you’re a life saver)
ActivStudio (for Promethean interactive white boards)
Retrospect
Roxio Toast 6
Stuffit 10

That is about it. I use just about all of those at least once a week. Some save me time (NetRestore, Iceberg, BatChmod) and some cost me time (Final Cut Pro) and some help me ease my mind (Photoshop).

I’ll be posting earnings from my life online and hopefully giving you a few tips that will help you earn more online. After all, there is plenty of room for all of us!

p.s. I have mastered the art of finding niches so look for about 1-2 free niche’s per month, and ways to exploit as much potential out of them as possible. In other words, put me in your RSS reader!

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