The last time Commercial Drive hosted Italian Day was back in 1982 (I was 12) when Italy. I’m not 100% sure why they stopped Italian Day but last Sunday it was back in full force. They closed of all of Commercial from Broadway right down to Venables Street and it was packed. Even thought it was cold and damp out the turn out was very impressive. This year the world cup is happening and Commercial will be the center stage for all the soccer games at the Italian coffee bars. Enjoy the photos.
Bye.
pretty cool Italian graffiti soccer player!
Portuguese coffee shop Leira Cafe on Commercial
Fiat 500 Ragazzi Pizza delivery car, no joke! They are down the street from where I live…
I figured I better post these photos before they become non relevant, since I am in Vancouver now. Well it was fun while it lasted. We stayed in Vegas for almost 6 sun filled weeks, it was awesome! We walked daily for about an hour, felt great with the sun in our faces, wearing shorts and t-shirts. Buying that condo in Vegas was one of the best decisions I have ever made, it feels so good to be able to getaway anytime we want.
I’m back in Vancouver looking at the rain outside and wondering why the f*ck we even came back to the “most beautiful city on earth” (Vancouver?!). In any case now I can focus on the work tasks as hand with no distractions of nice weather, LOL. Driving wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, 20 hours to get there, with a night in Boise, Idaho in between Vancouver and Vegas.
Now it’s to get off my lazy ass and make some money!
I don’t like not making my goals and it seems the last time I blogged about getting back to my $1500 profit per day it didn’t happen. Why not?
- Part of it really has to do with me and my relaxed work ethic. Psychologically I think I am happy with the success I have achieved so I don’t work as hard as I should be or did in the past.
- I don’t push myself like I used, the end result is lower income. Another reason is feeling sorry for myself because I’m not making as much (stupid I know…). Money screws with your head, when you making tons of it you want more, when it comes in less amounts you get pissed off, angry etc.. Human beings are strange creatures, always wanting more and more, never being satisfied or happy with what they have already.
- Lastly the internet is constantly evolving and changing and many opportunities that I made hundreds of thousands of dollars from in the past aren’t there. Competition comes in and pretty soon you aren’t making money. Google chances how the rank websites and your AdSense earning dry up and so on. Surprisingly I still make about $1,100 month from Ad Sense, from informational websites I built in 2003-2006. I haven’t touched them in years since at least least 2006. $1,1000 isn’t a ton of cash but I get check for doing nothing. Back to the changing Internet, I found loopholes in search engine like Google, Yahoo and MSN that allowed to get very cheap targeted traffic to my sites and made a killing for years. Most of those loopholes are now closed unfortunately, however the money I made from these tactics has been invested in real estate safe and sound.
I made at least 2-3 million dollar in revenue from many, many loopholes that I found that will be forever closed. I am very grateful for being in the right place at the right time in many situations for many years. I basically milked every idea I had as long as I could, and still milking some now as I write this. Being resourceful has helped to cement my financial freedom for as long as I am alive and my kids (and grand children) will be taken care of long after I am gone 50-60 years from now, for that I am so VERY grateful for! I feel like I have done my duty as a provider, and it feels great to have achieved it.
Don’t count me out yet though, not even close. I still have some tricks up my sleeve I’m not going to slowdown and retire. I have too much energy to stop!
As for the local affiliate marketing I tried it with a local plumbing company, I made a website for them, I set up phone tracking so my client (plumber) knew that these calls were coming from me. So far from what I know he got 1 customer from it in about 1 month.
- The problem is this, he doesn’t answer the call every time because he is busy being a plumber, if he calls a few hours later then that potential customer may have gotten another plumber lined up for the job.
- I am paying for all the online advertising, so I get screwed because he isn’t on the ball!
- Also some plumbing jobs are just too small for this plumber to do, for instance changing a leaking faucet isn’t really worth it to him. I get 10% of each job, but it hasn’t worked out too well.
- Traffic for local marketing campaigns is much lower than a dating site where you can target millions of people. For instance for this plumbing client, I get anywhere from 5-13 clicks a day. This is enough to get a job per day you would think but apparently lots of the phone calls are people asking questions more than booking jobs.
- He has poor communication skills and takes him forever to call me back (many days usually).
I’m not too bummed out on this because I knew there were be problems that I wouldn’t be able to foresee until I actually had a campaign running. Local affiliate marketing definitely does work, because I track the phone calls the plumber is receiving. He is getting the calls but a factor of a few things really isn’t making this deal work out for me. Currently I lost around $250 roughly on this test, you live and learn. I don’t regret doing this project at all, I learned lots and I can use what I have learned on other clients that will pop up. I will be pausing the phone tracking as well as all my online advertising for this client. I wasted enough of my own time and money to try this out. If the client doesn’t want to put in much effort then I have no alternative. I don’t like chasing clients for their input or money. There are way too many other people who would love an opportunity to have a chance at expanding their client base and only pay for actual clients. Whatever, you live and learn…
Watch this video below it is very inspirational Will Smith is the man he is a driven man, so awesome!!! He never gives up he would rather “die on a treadmill”. This is how you achieve success, so simple but yet SOO POWERFUL. He understands the universe and a crazy work ethic. AWESOME. This video sums up how I feel…
heading out on the 20 hour drive from Vegas to Vancouver
stopping for gas in some Nevada desert gas station
through the Nevada desert..
cool rock formations in the Nevada desert..
Nevada highway patrol
creepy little town in Nowhereville, Nevada USA
ditto
Once you get to Western Idaho, it all changes and looks like Vancouver…
cool looking winding road…
Almost home!!
CV | 
I'm bitching, affiliate marketing, daily life, family life, goals, las vegas, law of attraction, local affiliate marketing, photos, real estate, vancouver | 
06 1st, 2010| 
No Comments »Yah, we arrived safe and sound at 7pm on Friday night! The truck was full of bugs and we were all tired but we arrived. Overall the drive from Vancouver to Vegas wasn’t that bad actually. We woke up at 6 am but didn’t leave Vancouver until 7 because having 2 kids always takes more time to do anything. The Peace Arch border was empty which was great. I got a speeding ticket just before Seattle, fuck. It cost me $96, which sucked but whatever. I wasn’t trying to speed it just kinda happened. After that little fiasco I kept my truck on cruise control the rest of the road trip, so I couldn’t go over the speed limit. We drove though the Cascade Mountains and Enumclaw, Washington, where it was pissing rain.
The drive from Vancouver to Boise, Idaho was 10 hours, we got to redneck Boise at 6 pm. We stayed the night in a really nice hotel that was basically brand new, and it only cost $63. We stayed in a town called Meridian which is a suburb of Boise. I found the hotel on HotWire.com and it was a 3 star hotel that had free wifi through out the hotel, as well as a complimentary breakfast for the whole family! It was well worth the price. If you want the best possible deals on hotels as well as airfare, then check out HotWire.com. I’ll get the name later, can’t recall it right now.
I should also mention that every few hours my son would have a meltdown and start crying, so he would be let out of his car seat. He would cry for at least 30 minutes sometimes, and he cries really loud, lol. We did try to stop and give him what he needed (breast milk, diaper change or just comforting), but it wasn’t always an option. I knew driving 20 hours with small kids isn’t the easiest way to travel, but what the hell I like taking chances! Overall the kids were pretty damn good, I must say. The DVD players playing “How To Eat fried Worms” on the backseats might have something to do with their overall good behavior, lol.
The drive from Boise to Vegas started to drag the last few hours, since I just wanted to get there, unpack and relax. As we kept driving south in the desert towards Las Vegas the temperature kept creeping up and up. By the time we got into Vegas the temperature was 27°C, it was perfect. Now I can relax in the sun for a month, work and not worrying about the rain.
Oh yeah for gas, I spent around $250 from Vancouver to Las Vegas which is pretty damn good considering I drive a V8 Escalade that isn’t really economical. Gas in the USA is at $0.80 per liter compared to Vancouver that is at $1.12! Being Canadian we play allot more for gas, housing, you name it, compared to the Yankees. Now I can tell people I drove through Idaho, wee I am so proud, haha.
Ok that’s enough for now, time for an espresso.
driving through Washington, rain and more rain….
someone watching a DVD, with a lollipop..
driving over some bridge in eastern Washington…
A house on the move!
Idaho = farm country & potatoes for miles and miles.
Yes, there was still snow all over Nevada mountains
We stopped in this creepy little town in South Nevada, to get some gas. I swear to god everyone was in bred lol.
Having some food at the gas station…
little town of horrors….
I drove that truck for 20 hours in 2 days. I’m still tired thinking about it! I would never make it as a trucker!
creepy town, USA.. Horror movie anyone? Reminds me of that cheezy movie called “House Of Wax“, with Paris Hilton in it.
miles and miles of scenery like this..
Palms trees in the middle of no where. Palm trees are not native to the desert FYI…
Well it looks like people are interested in doing online marketing, so far the DJ that I have been doing online marketing for is slow. That is one problem I could have seen coming is the lack of traffic and searches for local searches as “Vancouver disc jockey”. Everything in life is about trial and error and you never know until you try. That’s ok though I have my second client sand will be starting on building a quick site to promote via paid marketing and start ranking for organic traffic.
Today, however I am preparing for the big road trip down to Las Vegas. The whole trip is a 20 hour drive from Vancouver and going through potato county (Idaho) and then to Las Vegas . We will be stopping in off in Boise, Idaho for the night and then be in Vegas by roughly 3-4 pm Friday. I am super stoked since the temperature is a nice balmy 28 celcuis! I can’t wait!
I have a whole list of people coming to visit, from my brother and his family, my mother in law, as well as my wife’s aunt and uncle. I have another friend going to down to Vegas who we will be meeting up with, as well as my 3 cousins and their spouses. It’s a full house. People from Vancouver love going to Las Vegas, it’s a cheap, quick get away.
Of course being the workaholic that I am, I will be working by the pool courtesy of the free wifi available from the clubhouse in my complex. I can’t wait to work by the pool, wee.
Well that’s about it for now. I need to do a bit of packing, then register a new domain name for the new local client that I will be doing online marketing for.
I took a screen shot from Google Maps of the exact route we will be taking to get down to Vegas. This is the 20 hours driving route, I could have taken the 1-5 route through Oregon and cut across Cali but I would rather save the 4 hours an drive through farm country. I can always take the scenic route on the way back if I want to.
Next post is from Vegas, ciao!!!!!!!
CV | affiliate marketing, daily life, family life, las vegas, local affiliate marketing, vancouver | 04 14th, 2010| No Comments »So, I have decided to change my business model slightly. I am still going to do affiliate marketing however now I am going to be targeting local businesses here in Vancouver and possibly in Las Vegas. The goal is to target local businesses who have a limited web presence and are not advertising online at the moment. There is a huge opportunity there for someone like me who can market online.
Here is an example:
Let’s say you have a dental practice in Vancouver and are looking to get new patients. The way to go about generating new business at a fraction of the cost of the Yellow Pages is the Internet. This is the absolute best way for you as a business owner to get the most bang for your buck, why?
Paying $500 month for a page ad in the Yellow Pages is old news. Wouldn’t you as a business like to pay for only individual people who actually contact you by email or phone? If someone is searching for “Burnaby dentist” or “Burnaby divorce lawyer”, then they come to your website (that I could create) and fill out a form so you can contact them back. You as a client only pay for the lead of a person who is truly interested in what you have to offer. This is called pay for performance. I get paid only when someone actually contacts you to set up and appointment to have their teeth cleaned or for a divorce consultation.
This is nothing new, just something I haven never focused on a local level. My marketing has always been international, from the UK to the US, and even Italy, until now. I feel the opportunities are endless for me using this local business model. The client would actually get a free trial and they would be able to evaluate the leads for a period of a few days to one month depending on how many leads they receive. If they get 40 leads from me that would be a sufficient number for them to contact those people and get business out of them. If they get business from my leads then we move on, and then they can begin paying for the leads they will receive as a result on my marketing efforts.  Wouldn’t you want to work with me if it costed you nothing for a test run and then if only you were happy would you then start paying for leads sent to you? I thought so. 
I am excited to get this up and running, and my first client should be up and running in the next few days. Honestly I feel that the sky is the absolute limit with this. If I wanted I could use this model in every city in the USA, Canada etc. For now I’m going to start small and then go from there, but this I feel is the beginning of something huge for me. I have done cold calling , so I know how to get clients. I know where to get clients and how to talk to them. The time is now, for me to start my next reinvention. I can see this business model making me $60,000 monthly in a 6 month time frame.
Today I am in the process of getting my PHP coding done (tracking, keywords searched, subids and information via a form to be sent to my client as well as myself.) I also plan to implement the technology of Google Voice to be able to track phone calls, right down to what people searched for on Google.
I have been trying to find a long lasting Internet marketing niche, that won’t die overnight and I think I finally found. The best part about this is that now I can help local business grow immensely. If you are a local business who wants to get customers from the Internet, then this is your chance.
3 Easy step process
- Risk free to you (I setup up the phone tracking, I create the website, I pay for all the advertising and you collect the leads for free. ) You pay for nothing.
- After a certain amount of days, weeks or certain amount of free leads, we can evaluate the quality of the leads I am generating for you, then you can choose to move forward or not.
- You start gaining more customers because of the Internet, and I purse more places to advertise for you,(remember I pay for all the advertising) . More clients, more $$ for you and for me. Everyone is happy.
In all honesty I truly believe that this is a huge opportunity for local business owners in Vancouver or anywhere for that matter. If you are interested in generating more business risk FREE, then contact me by using the form below.
CV | affiliate marketing, goals, local affiliate marketing, ppc, vancouver | 04 9th, 2010| No Comments »
