TylerCruz.com: An Internet Entrepreneur’s JourneyThe journal of a young web entrepreneur on his journey to wealth.

Review of Logo Design Company LogoBee

The following is a paid review and is completely of my own opinion and is not influenced by being paid. If you’re interested in having me review your site or product, please view my advertising page.

“Branding” is a term that seems to be thrown around more than ever these days, but it’s for good reason, especially for brick and mortar businesses. While “branding” can include a wide spectrum of different sources such as a company’s colours, theme, decor, typeface, and even things such as their political views and which celebrities they choose to have endorse them, the core element which distinguishes a company more than anything other than its name is their logo.

This is why I personally take great care when I am commissioning a logo for a new project, and why it’s always the very first thing I get done in terms of visual design. I actually build my websites around the logo, not the other way around.

LogoBee is a custom logo design company which has won multiple awards and has been in the business for just over a decade now. Like most logo design companies, LogoBee also offers other graphic design services including web and stationery design, but since they mainly do logos, this review will focus on that.

The Packages

LogoBee offers a few different logo packages which range in price from $199 to $1,199. However, the more expensive packages mainly differ by tacking on additional perks such as 500 business cards, stationery and Word design, turnaround time, etc. The actual logo you receive will be of the same quality regardless of which package you choose.

Therefore, the best two packages available also appear to be the cheapest two: the Special Package and the Silver Package.

The Special Package is currently on sale at $199 (normally $298) and offers 6 logo design samples, 5 day turnaround for initial samples, 6 revisions, and no refund.

The Silver Package is also currently on sale at $279 (normally $389) and offers 8 logo design samples, 5 day turnaround for initial samples, unlimited revisions, “full satisfaction”, and a money back guarantee.

The package states:

• For an unlimited time we will modify your logo design free of charge until you are fully satisfied.
• If for some reason, we did not match your chosen style in the initial drafts, we will give you free redraw session with 8 completely new logo design variations.

I assume the second point is referring to the “full satisfaction”.

These prices are “okay”, but certainly not bargains. The logo design industry is actually pretty competitive and there are a lot of logo design sources out there, so LogoBee may want to consider either lowering their prices or else offering more perks in order to stay competitive.

If I had to choose between the two packages, I’d personally choose the Silver as it’s hard to beat a money back guarantee – if you’re not satisfied, you simply get your money back. No risk.

Big Clients

One of the most notable things about LogoBee is the large amount of clients as well as the big  name clients they have serviced.

They have designed logos for:

• Heritage Education Funds Inc. (one of Canada’s largest Registered Education Savings Plan RESP) providers)
• Greenpeace
• Playa Del Racing (LogoBee created a team logo design which they sport on their jackets)
• Kendra Todd, winner of NBC`s hit show "The Apprentice", got a logo design services for her real estate firm (Exclusive interview with Kendra)
• Clinton Hart of the San Diego Chargers NFL team recently had a logo designed for his non-profit, The Clinton Hart Foundation.
• The TAB Boxing Championship Belt

LogoBee claims to have created logos for more than 10,000 companies, which is pretty insane.

You can also view 6 pages of customer testimonials here.

The Logos

A company can have all the testimonials and biggest clients in the world, but in the end the only thing that really matters is the quality of their work, which is usually shown in their portfolio.

When I review a company or freelancer that provides any form of graphic design, I like to go through their portfolio and choose a few of the best and worst of what they showcase and then present them to you so that you can make your own decision.

Below are 6 of the more low quality logos I found in their portfolio:

To be honest, these represented more of the average logo that can be found in LogoBee’s huge, seemingly never-ending, portfolio.

However, after a fair bit of searching, I did manage to find 6 logos that I really did like:

Each of these logos is easily worth $200-$300, which is what LogoBee’s 2 cheapest packages are priced around.

While the large majority of the logos I found were of pretty bad, to be fair, this could be largely due to the fact that most clients have poor taste in design, and so LogoBee could simply be catering to the artistic direction their clients insist on having, there’s no way to know for sure.

Referral Program

LogoBee also provides a money-making opportunity through its affiliate program. Anyone who signs up will earn a $20 referral fee for each new logo project referred. The referred clients also receive a $20 discount on their logo design purchase.

The Verdict

Overall, I have mixed feelings of LogoBee. I think that they are slightly overpriced for what they offer, although they are not too out of line with their competitors.

The majority of the logos they showcase in their portfolio are not too great, mainly due to two logo design faux pas that seem to be a recurring theme with what they produce: their lack of simplicity and the out-of-style design elements (such as many swishes and curved lines – think Nike).

While not all of their logos are overly impressive, they do showcase a few real nice ones in their portfolio (see above) that are actually very impressive.

I would therefore recommend anyone who decides to be a customer of LogoBee to purchase anything other than the “Special” Package, as it does not guarantee satisfaction. All the other packages do, including a full money back guarantee, so in that regard you really have nothing to lose – you’ll either get your money back to use elsewhere, or you’ll walk away with a fantastic logo.

$600 Weight Loss Challenge: Cruz vs Piotrowski

Last year, I competed in a weight loss challenge against Jonathan Volk in which we both ended up managing to lose 10 pounds each.

Due to the (personal) success of that competition, and since it’s already been nearly a year since the last competition started, I am engaging in yet another blogging weight loss challenge.

This will come to the chagrin of many readers, as I know that a lot of you simply aren’t interested in these types of posts, but I have raised the stakes for this competition so maybe it will now be a bit more interesting than it was previously.

Some of you may ask what the hell this has to do with making money online or being an internet entrepreneur. It’s true: this is largely a personal issue. However, you’d be surprised how much your health can affect how much you make.

I’m sure nobody will contest the fact that eating well and exercising routinely has a direct and positive effect on your energy and concentration levels. I haven’t been working much lately, and I blame most of this to the fact that I’ve been so lethargic again the past few months. I’m hoping that getting back into shape will help give me energy to work and focus better.

The Challenge

This weight loss challenge is between the personal development and make money online blogger, Paul Piotrowski, and myself.

• I must lose 12 pounds within 10 weeks
• Paul must lose 13 pounds within 10 weeks

Paul needs to lose 1 more pound than me since he weighs more than me. We based these numbers off of 6% of our total body weight.

The final official weight loss will be weighed on May 21st, 2010 at 10PM Pacific Time. If one of us loses the weight earlier, that does not declare a win; it must stay off by the deadline.

Whatever each of us weighs in at on May 21st, 2010 at 10PM is what the results will be based on.

The $600 Penalty

In order to provide a bit of drama, as well as to provide true incentive for each of us to follow through with this competition, we have both agreed to pay the other person $600 should we fail.

Therefore:

• If I don’t lose 12 pounds by May 21st, 2010 at 10PM, I have to pay Paul $600.
• If Paul doesn’t lose 13 pounds by May 21st, 2010 at 10PM, he has to pay me $600.

If both Paul and I make our goals, no penalty is paid out. If neither of us make it, then we’ll essentially break even.

This latter point may sound like a way out for us, but it really isn’t. If Paul is having trouble losing weight, it’s only in my best interest to keep going as then I’ll have $600 in my pocket. Similarly, I could be out $600 if Paul ended up losing his weight at the last minute.

Paul’s starting weight is 212 pounds so he will need to weigh in at 199 pounds or less. My starting weight is 201 pounds so I’ll need to weigh in at 189 pounds or less.

Challenge Rules

Both Paul and I have agreed to the following rules for this challenge:

• We each must make an official post announcing the challenge with an overview, the rules, etc. In this post we must each post a current "before" photo of ourselves (preferably a front and side portrait). We must also post a short video clip of ourselves getting on the scale to prove our current weight at the beginning of the challenge.
• Similarly, at the end of the competition on May 21st, 2010 at 10PM, we must again post current photos and a video of getting on the scale.
• Preferably about once or twice every week, we must each make a post updating the status of the competition (current weight, things we’re doing to lose the weight, etc.) Photos and or videos here are not mandatory but would be nice.
• No weight loss pills, dietary supplements that have weight loss as their primary advertised benefit, colon cleansers (haha), starving of oneself, dehydration techniques, etc. of any kind. Must be all natural old fashioned weight loss.

Let it Begin!

Here is my official starting weigh-in video:

In the video, I actually weighed in at around 203 pounds, but I think I’ve been averaging closer to 201 so to be fair as well as push myself a bit more, I have declared 201 as my official starting weight.

Also, I made the video a couple hours before deciding to tack another pound onto the challenge with Paul, which is why I say in the video that I’m going for 190, when in actuality it is now 189.

Here is my official starting (before) photo:

Let the humility begin! Paul Piotrowski’s weigh-in post can be found here.

6% in 10 Weeks for $600

For those of you who think that losing 12-13 pounds in 10 weeks is easy, I’d like to disagree.

While it may be easy for some of you, it isn’t for me. I had to work my ASS off in the first challenge in order to just barely make the final weigh-in on the last day. By the end of the 10 weeks, I was jogging/power-walking around a lake 14KM a day.

12 pounds accounts for 6% of my total body weight, which is rather significant, and there is a $600 penalty on the line if I don’t lose the weight in time.

Effects of My Previous Competition

Some of you may be wondering why I’m back in the 200 pound range again. After all, I finished the last competition by weighing in at 195 pounds.

As I had predicted, I regained half of what I lost over the past year, which is why I’m now at 201. I was originally 206 last year, but managed to keep half off which I’m actually pretty happy with.

To be honest, I reverted to my old horrible diet and lack of exercise (my only exercise being going to badminton twice a week) which is why I have been slowly regaining some of my lost weight back.

But that’s what this new competition is for, and by mid-May I should be 189 or less which will actually put me at a normal weight (at least as far as BMI is concerned).

My Plan of Attack

I plan to do exactly what I did last year. After all, it worked. I will slowly adapt my diet by eliminating fast food entirely and then gradually cutting down on all the sugar drinks (pop, juice, sugar in coffee/tea) as well as the high calorie and sodium processed foods. I will also start eating more fruits and vegetables again.

However, diet only accounts for about 20% of my ‘technique’. I prefer to focus on exercise. I already go to badminton twice a week, but will once again start going around the 6KM circumference lake here.

I will probably start at just doing 1 circuit at 6KM, but my end goal is to break my 14KM ‘record’, as well as set a new personal best time for the first 6KM.

I’ll also be doing some daily crunches and push-ups, although I don’t like to do too many as that will just build muscle and I’m looking to lose weight here, not gain weight!

Wish me luck – this is going to suck.

The Secrets to Blogging Success (Minus the Secrets)

This is a post by Glen who writes about viral marketing at ViperChill. He’s had a lot of public success with blogging over the last 18 months so wants to share some of the things he’s learned.

At 16, I built my first ever blog. That was almost 5 years ago, and I’m still blogging to this day. Despite having recently sold the 10th biggest personal development blog in the world and gaining 2,000+ subscribers on my marketing blog in the last 4 months, I used to be a total blogging failure.

ViperChill, the site I recently relaunched, is the first blog I ran. In my naivety, I didn’t write at all for human visitors at all; I didn’t care. I simply wrote for search engines, and aimed to get as much traffic from them as I could.

Obviously this wasn’t a very good strategy, ending my first year of writing with 0 blog comments and 6 subscribers, which were probably all me on different Google reader accounts. But hey, I was getting some search engine traffic.

Thankfully, I have managed to turn that 1st year of blogging-hell into experience, and now run some very popular websites. I recently sold my biggest blog, PluginID, for a mid-five-figure fee, so I want to share the story of how I went from being a nobody in a niche to dominating a market.

The Story of PluginID

PluginID was my blog built for the personal development niche. When I started it, I was an absolutely nobody in the industry. And, if I’m totally honest, I didn’t read any blogs in the industry either. I was going through a lot of personal growth in my life after having recently moved to South Africa at 18 (where I didn’t know one single person) and decided to document my experiences.

Having been in the internet marketing space for 3 years prior to starting the site and having companies like Land Rover and Hewlett Packard receiving my services, I was confident I could make the site a success. Yet, dreams and hopes aren’t anything without taking action to make things happen.

As I had a full-time job when running the site, I would usually work on my blog from 7pm onwards, and sometimes wouldn’t stop until 2am in the morning. I really loved writing about topics like motivation, productivity and being who you want to be, so the long hours didn’t bother me.

I worked hard on the site and finally reached what I view as a respectable milestone – 500 feed subscribers – after 7 months. I say finally as with my background, I expected a little more. Little did I realise that blogging really does have a ‘hurdle’ to cross when you first start, and 5 months later the site was at 4,000 subscribers.

After 18 months of running the site I sold it to someone I know for a fair, five-figure fee. The site was making around $3,000 per month on average through selling ads and products, so it was a nice deal for both involved. I honestly never thought I would sell the site as I loved the topic so much, but I had been longing to get back into the topic of internet marketing where I had spent so much of my earlier years online.

I’m all for doing what you love, so I decided to relaunch my “baby.”

The Success of ViperChill

In October 2009, I posted a “I’m back” message on the site. I hadn’t posted on the domain for over two years, but was fortunate to start with around 2,000 subscribers, although I doubted many of them were still active. After writing that first post, I just felt really excited to start getting into the swing of things again. In fact, this was exactly how I felt when I started PluginID.

As you’re reading Tyler’s blog, you probably know of quite a few other sites in the internet marketing space. I sure did, and besides Tyler’s blog there was clear factor about most of them: they write short, dispensable, throwaway posts. For every 20 articles on most of these sites, there might be one gem that you can learn from.

Through my experience with PluginID, I knew I didn’t want to be like that. I wanted every single post I wrote to be valuable and one of the best resources on that topic you can find. In other words, I decided not to churn out 7, 500-word posts per week like a lot of these sites. Instead, I post once or twice per week and write articles that are usually over 2,000 words in length.

The result? In the last 4 months the blog has grown by over 2,000 subscribers and I’ve been mentioned frequently on some of the most popular blogs in the industry.

What this has to do with you…

I’m not sharing my story to show off or so that you think of me as some sort of guru. There are lots of other people who would prefer that kind of Ego boost or guru status. Instead, I’m sharing my story because the secret to making each of these blogs successful is simply that there are no secrets.

Sorry if that annoys you and you were looking for something to overcome your “competitors” (there are no competitors to valuable bloggers), but it’s the truth. Sure there are tweaks and tricks you can apply to get the most out of your site, and your audience, but for the most part, there’s just a few fundamentals that matter.

Here’s What I Want You To Do

I don’t have any ads or affiliate links on my site, so there’s nothing I want to sell you or convince you to do. However, I write in this space because I genuinely want to help people share their true value with the world (often in the form of blogging) and live the life that they want to live (making a living online).

Therefore, I have a few suggestions for you.

1. Stop Making Excuses

Picasso wasn’t born with a paintbrush in his hand and J.K. Rowling wasn’t possessed with some special talent that has made her over $1bn through writing. When you’re born, everyone starts on the same playing field. I understand that some people have a wealthy family or aren’t born into the best environment, but if you’re able to read this article, then you’re better off than most.

I look back on how I spent a few years online and honestly cringe. The countless hours I spent browsing Digitalpoint and buying the latest ‘make money overnight’ product could have been spent doing things that really helped me.

I am not lucky, I simply provided enough value to my audience on a regular basis and received the success I did because of that. If you do the same, your position will be the same. Get rid of your excuses right now, because they aren’t helping you progress, they’re just holding you back.

2. Stop Caring About What You Get Back

It wasn’t until I stopped focusing on monetary or subscriber rewards and started focusing on providing value to people that my websites actually became successful. It makes sense right? If you genuinely focus on helping people then things will come back your way.

Look at the top sites in this industry like Problogger, Copyblogger and Chris Brogan. They have been consistently providing value for years and now they’re being rewarded for their efforts.

The top blogs are the ones that have a core focus on helping their readers. Do you think Seth Godin needs to sell more books? Do you think he needs to blog everyday to continue to make a living? Of course not, he’s a multi-millionaire, but he just genuinely loves helping people.

Unless you run a news or some form of entertainment site, then everything you do should be around your readers and providing massive value. Again, it’s not surprise that those who give the most get the most back in return.

3. Finally, Stop Looking for the Secrets

As I mentioned earlier, there are great tips and tricks to pick up for your blog around the web. One I particularly liked was by Tim Ferriss where he found that changing his ‘Categories’ section to ‘Topics’ massively increased their click-through rate.

I love reading things like this, but they’re only going to take you so far. Having a blog with awful content that is plastered with ads isn’t going to take you very far, even if you do use the Thesis theme for Wordpress and rename that category label.

Look around at the top 100 Technorati blogs and the biggest sites in your industry. Notice how they are consistently providing massive value to their readers. They may do it in different formats (text, images, video) and they may have different posting schedules, but they’re still doing it.

The real switch happened for me when I stopped looking for the tricks and secrets to make me money, and just started building sites around the things that I loved with the aim to really help people with that topic. It’s not the same as most of the advice you read online, but most of the advice about making money is from people who only make money by teaching you.

Now, can you please promise me you’re going to share your value with the world? Because I can promise you, the world is waiting for it.

Glen Allsopp writes at ViperChill on the topic of Viral Marketing. He recently posted a guide to Wordpress SEO that you may learn a lot from.

Jonathan Volk’s Free Affiliate Marketing Guide

If you do any kind of affiliate marketing online then chances are you’ve heard of Jonathan Volk.

You may also recognize his name from when we competed against each other in a weight loss challenge last year. He’s also one of my blog link partners.

Jonathan Volk is a well known name in the affiliate marketing industry as he is a true super affiliate, regularly generating around $400,000 a month. Okay sure, that’s gross, but you could still assume around $150,000 net profit each month. That’s $35,000 profit a week!

Oh yeah, and he’s only 23.

For the first time ever, Jonathan Volk has written an e-book which is a comprehensive affiliate marketing guide. It covers everything including the absolute basics (such as defining what affiliate marketing is), demographic analysis, social media, PPV, PPC, media buying, etc.

Best of all, the guide is completely free. You simply need to give your name and e-mail and the guide is completely yours.

Download it now, for free.

Since Jonathan covers all the major aspects of affiliate marketing in this guide, this is the perfect opportunity for those of you who always wanted to get started in affiliate marketing but never wanted to pay for an online course.

What’s nice, too, is that since Jonathan just wrote this guide, that means it’s up-to-date. The affiliate marketing world evolves and transitions pretty fast, so having a recently written guide is paramount to avoiding saturated sources, marketing tactics, etc.

Below is a list of the guide’s sections:

• Section 1. Introduction
• Section 2. What Is Affiliate Marketing?
• Section 3. What Is An Affiliate Network?
• Section 4. Recommended Affiliate Networks
• Section 5. How Does All This Come Together?
• Section 6. The "Pregame"
• Section 7. The "Pregame" Pt. 2 – Know Your Demographics
• Section 8. The "Pregame" Pt. 3 – Setting Up Hosting / Domain Name
• Section 9. Setting Up A Simple PHP Redirect
• Section 10. The Landing Page
• Section 11. Affiliate Marketing Methods (Basic Overview)
• Section 12. Social Media Affiliate Marketing Guide
• Section 13. Pay Per View Affiliate Marketing Guide
• Section 14. Pay Per Click Affiliate Marketing Guide
• Section 15. Media Buying Affiliate Marketing Guide
• Section 16. After Your Campaigns Are Ready To Launch
• Section 17. Conclusion

Jonathan Volk is such a beast in the affiliate marketing industry that you should really hear what he has to say. The guide is free and Volk knows his stuff, so download it now and learn a thing or two