I have had pretty low energy lately which has made working difficult, and the other day I just did not feel like working at all so I decided to play some poker. After 3-4 hours of building my $200 up to nearly $800, I started to get bored of grinding it out and lost all of it shortly thereafter after moving up limits purely out of boredom. This is always what happens.

After that, I needed something to expend energy on, and since badminton just finished and wouldn’t be available for 4 days, I decided to reinstall good old Starcraft.

Starcraft has never failed to entertain me, and within minutes I was already immersed back into the 12-year-old best game of all time. I basically spent the past 3-4 days (how long it really was I can’t remember) playing Starcraft and sleeping. I did a fair bit of sleeping. In fact, just yesterday I slept for 10 hours, got up for 1-2 hours, then had a 2-hour nap! Then I went to bed only 8-9 hours later and slept for another 7-8 hours!

I did do a tiny bit of work during the past 3-4 days, but it was mainly just writing yesterday’s blog post, and since it was about buying a house it wasn’t too labour intensive to write.

A couple hours ago I uninstalled Starcraft (after losing several games in a row which frustrated me), watched a couple of episodes of Family Guy, and then went to my computer to get back to work.

I grabbed a Red Bull, worked on trimming down some of my unanswered e-mails, and am now writing this blog post.

It was probably the Red Bull, but as I started this blog post I felt real good. Reenergized.

Although to be honest, my eyes are starting to tire right now so I’m going to need to take a bit of a break after I finish this post.

Nevertheless, the effects of my little gaming marathon over the weekend are showing. I am once again interested and somewhat excited about working again. I have a new little project I’m going to be trying with affiliate marketing which I’m curious how it will turn out, and it will feel good to get caught up with the rest of my unanswered e-mails.

Even though I felt really lethargic and hazy over the past few days, I think that avoiding work for the most part was good for me. It was certainly needed.

For those of you who don’t do this for a living and work for yourself at home, you may not realize that this is usually a 7-day, 365-days-a-year job. I work every day, in some capacity. Even when I’m on a vacation I bring my laptop and my Blackberry.

After a while this can really accumulate and have an effect on you when you’re not getting those 2 full days off work that most people get by working a ‘real’ job.

These are eBooks that used to cost money (he sold thousands of copies of his AdSense Secrets eBook at $97) so here’s your opportunity to get a lot of great content from one of the Internet’s earliest big marketers.

There is absolutely no catch. You’ll be added to Joel’s mailing list, of course, but that’s hosted on AWeber meaning that you can easily opt-out at any time.

Here’s a quick summary of the 4 eBooks that are now completely free:

AdSense Secrets 4

Link: Adsense Secrets

Kontera Secrets

Link: Kontera Secrets

Chitika Secrets

Link: Chitika Secrets

Build a Website Fast

Link: Build a Website Fast

Enjoy!

A week or two ago I was surfing the web when I came across an audio recording which absolutely blew me away.

Now, chances are some or maybe even many of you have already heard this before (based on the 6.7 million views on the YouTube version), but I hadn’t, so I felt it was worth posting here even if only a few of you get to experience it for the first time.

The Virtual Barbershop

IMPORTANT: YOU MUST LISTEN TO THIS WEARING HEADPHONES OR IT WILL NOT WORK!

Before you start:

1. Make sure you’re wearing headphones. It will not work at all if you are not wearing headphones. If you have the option, use the best headphones you have (Ex. real over-the-ear headphones as opposed to little iPod earphones).
2. Adjust your volume. Adjust your volume so that you can hear clearly and at an appropriate level. Don’t make it too loud though as you may get scared Also, please close any programs or websites that make noise so they don’t interfere with the experience.
3. Get into it. Your experience will be much richer if you relax, play along, and really get into it. Really pretend that you’re sitting in a barbershop in Italy and are getting a haircut.
4. Close your eyes after hitting play. This will greatly improve the experience.

What do you think? Was that not insanely awesome? Show it to your friends or family and watch their expression while they listen to it!

My favourite parts were the “bag” and the “surprise” at the end. I freaked out the first time I heard the ending, lol.

Italian Woman

If you’re anything like me, then you’ll want to hear more recordings like these. Unfortunately, there are surprisingly very few out there, but here’s another one I found.

However, it’s only about 20 seconds. Even so, it will probably still make you blush…

684 More

I was so raptured by these that I just had to look for more. I did manage to find close to 700 more here, but they’re not nearly as good quality as the two above.

So What the Heck Are These?

These special audio files are called binaural recordings. Wikipedia defines them as:

“…a method of recording sound that uses a special microphone arrangement and is intended for replay using headphones.”

Now, “surround sound” technology isn’t anything new, and they’ve been commonplace in most PC games for years now, but there’s something magical about a really good binaural recording that makes it seem like a completely different experience.

Binaural recordings are apparently so powerful that some companies claim they can alter brainwave patterns and induce a drug-like effect. Binaural tones is therefore a growing industry which some business people are trying to pounce on as it’s currently legal.

Products include a special iPod-like player in which “users” purchase and download special binaural tones to get a buzz off. Many users claim it really works, but many also claim it doesn’t. I personally feel it’s probably a combination of a Zen-like meditation and the placebo effect at work.

Why Isn’t the Industry Pouncing on This?

From what I can gather, the technology is very simple to create a binaural recording… basically only requiring two microphones placed at a fixed distance apart (ex. the distance of 2 human ears).

Maybe there are already many products out for this, but if I were blind, I would LOVE to listen to a really good feature-length binaural recording. It’d be like a movie for the ears. Imagine being in the protagonists body as he is wrongly accused of terrorism and is tortured, or perhaps being the detective in an an Agatha Christie “whodunit”.

Hell, you don’t have to be blind to enjoy that. That’d be PERFECT for the plane or a long bus ride, or even listening to in bed while trying to sleep.

Maybe I’m going overboard here but I really, really, enjoyed the barbershop experience, and I hope you did too!

I put up a $100 bounty to the first person who caught me cheating (such as taking an extra break, taking a 6-minute break instead of a 5-minute break, etc.) and I’m happy to say that I did manage to work those 12 hours successfully. I got quite a bit done and was happy with the results.

At first it was a bit distracting getting used to being streamed live on the Internet and having a chatroom with a few people constantly in there, some asking me questions or talking to me, but I did get used to it and was able to ignore it for the most part and work.

The Challenge

Here’s the deal: I’m going to work today for 12 hours straight from 12:30pm noon to 12:30am, Pacific Time (3:30pm-3:30am Eastern Time).

I am be allowed a 1-hour break for a lunch or dinner break (to be taken at the time of my choosing), and a 5-minute break every hour to use the bathroom, refill my beverage, etc. I will type something like ‘break’ or ‘brb’ in the chatroom of the live stream every time before I leave, and ‘back’ when I return.

The chatroom has a “toggle timestamp’ feature, which if enabled, will show the time next to each message so you can tell how long I’ve been on break.

Lessons Learned From Last Time

The previous challenge was a very neat and interesting experience, and once the challenge was over it was a huge relief to be able to finally leave the computer and watch a bit of TV before going to bed.

However, there were a few things that gave me a bit of trouble, and so I have adjusted the ‘rules’ slightly for this challenge to account for these things. First, there were a few times when I needed to get something but couldn’t because I wasn’t allowed to leave my desk.

For example, I needed a pen, and then later a CD, but even though they were literally behind me on other desks in my office 3-seconds away, I wasn’t able to grab them since it would have been ‘cheating’.

Also, it’s amazing just how short a 5-minute break really is. It’s barely enough time to go to the bathroom and make a cup of coffee (instant coffee too!), so they really aren’t breaks as they are refuelling periods. I have not extended this, but just thought I’d point that out

I have also added in the rules that I am not responsible for things beyond my control. For example, if a package comes and I need to sign for it or I get a personal phone call. If something like this happens, I will try to expedite things as fast as possible, but I should be allowed exceptions for such things.

Monetary or Public Pressure?

Since my previous challenge had both the money ($100) and public (live video and blog follow-up) pressures, I’m curious if one was much more influential than the other, so I am running another challenge now but without the $100 cash prize. As a result, the only pressure will be public humiliation.

Therefore, I could stop at any time and not have to pay any penalty – that’s up to me – but I’m curious if I can (or “am willing” may be a better choice of words) still complete this challenge within the rules given.

Rules

• I’m allowed to make quick and direct trips to receive items that pertain to work such as pens, CDs, paper, etc. This does not include things such as beverages or snacks.
• I am allowed to eat at my desk while working. Remember, 12 hours is a long time and I do have to eat.
• Chatting on instant messenger does count as work. Any chatting done is always work-related, and in fact, is necessary to my business.
• I am not responsible for things beyond my control such as power failures, fire alarms, phone calls, deliveries, etc.

Joel e-mailed me the other day to tell me about something new he’s working on, and I hadn’t checked out his blog in a while so I decided to go for a quick catch-up. That’s when I discovered than Joel is now busy with yet another video project, a talk show based around Internet marketing.

The show is called The Joel Comm Show (what else would it be called?) and is a bi-weekly show that ranges between 18-25 minutes. I found that interesting as that’s roughly the typical range for a network television show. Was Joel thinking ahead when he came up with that timeframe, possibly setting himself up for a network to buy his show? Hmm….

There have only been 2 episodes released so far, so it’s still brand new, which is probably why most of you haven’t heard of it yet.

Before I continue, here’s the full-length video of the second episode, featuring special guest Mile Filsaime:

Joel once again proves to be very comfortable and at home in front of the camera. He has a fantastic voice (would be an awesome radio personality) and a confident persona that only comes from years of experience in the Internet marketing industry.

To set the mood of a casual atmosphere, Joel does all the quirky things that many people associate with talk show hosts. I personally found this just a tad contrived and a little bit awkward, only because Joel seems to have combined all the talk show hosts quirks into one.

For example, he throws stuff at the camera ala Letterman and has a menagerie of objects on his desk ala Rosie O’Donnell. While it’s mostly good and fun, it does seem just a tad over the top and too tacky at times. But that’s just me.

The other thing that helps set the mood and decor of the show is the fun introduction that continues its theme throughout the show with its themed transitions and music. This is done well, although some of the transitions could be edited a bit better as they’re rather abrupt (especially the music).

The show is apparently co-hosted by Dan Nickerson. I had never heard of Dan Nickerson before, so it was a bit confusing watching the show and not knowing who he was. I actually thought he was the guest until the real guest came on later, a mistake reinforced due to the contrast between his quietness and Joel’s outgoing nature.

The show itself is actually pretty good. There are no boring or dull moments, yet the show still manages to fit in some good information during its 18-25 minute runtime. Joel is an industry leader and therefore knows a lot of people in the Internet marketing and business world, so you know that he’ll be able to consistently get good guests on the show.

The visual quality of the show is good, and it really looks pretty professional for the non-budget I know it’s being run on. For example, there’s even a short commercial near the end of the second episode but it’s actually done well. It’s for a magazine called TopOne Report, but since it’s done well, it’s actually not annoying like you’d think it’d be. They even do a joke of the Snuggie.

Overall, The Joel Comm Show is actually pretty good and entertaining. What will ultimately make or break the show, in my opinion, will be the interviews, so as long as Joel can line up some good guests, I can see it taking off.

In addition to being available via videos online, The Joel Comm Show is also available on iTunes.

I highly value any development or freelance source I use because as many of you probably know already know, it can be extremely rare to find a company that can deliver what you want and need affordably and with good service. One of these rarities is Interberry.

Even though I already revealed that I used Interberry for my development work close to a year ago (February 12th in the post: The Programmers Behind PublisherChallenge), some of you may have never seen the post or have simply forgotten about it.

The Proof is in the Pudding

I never endorse anything that I haven’t personally used or at least tried before, and this is no exception.

I have been working with Interberry for a full year now and have got them to do two very large projects for me. So far, I’ve commissioned roughly $10,000 worth of work from them (I think it’s actually more), so you can be sure that I personally like and use these guys.

The first project I had them do was PublisherChallenge.com, which most of you are already familiar with. PublisherChallenge is only about 1-year-old, but has already generated over $60,000 in net profits, with its members generating over 1.2 million dollars.

More recently, I had Interberry do a complete reprogramming of my very old Movie-Vault.com site. This was a massive revamp project as the site is 9-years-old, and the code and database was extremely sloppy with many patches over patches.

They managed to do a great job and within a very affordable budget. Due to the size and scope of the project, there were a number of bugs that arose, but they fixed any that I notified them of until they were fixed I was completely satisfied.

Now that the new Movie-Vault.com is finished, I plan on getting Interberry to add a few more features and improvements to the site.

I also plan on having them program a custom affiliate marketing script that will integrate into Wordpress and let me easily run split-testing of different landing pages and work with tracking tools such as Tracking202 Pro.

I’m pretty sure that I could this done for quite cheap, and the payoff could be immense.

The Team

One of the cool things with Interberry is if you have a larger project, they can assign you a dedicated team. The larger the project, the larger the team. This is a team working full-time on your project.

This is great for a number of reasons, but probably the most important being efficiency. Having a team work solely on your project lets them focus. They don’t have to be constantly shifting gears between different projects and clients.

Interberry has a staff of roughly 30 programmers, developers, designers, and managers, 6 of which were assigned as my team for PublisherChallenge, and 5 for Movie-Vault.

Below is the team that worked on Movie-Vault.com. Standing from left to right and their roles are:

• Nidhin M.D – Quality Assurance (Man, he should be chief of security!)
• Nithin Scaria – Senior Designer (Good PSD to XHTML converter)
• Soumya Cleatus – Developer (A fast and smart programmer)
• Rajeev C – Project Manager (Dealt with all my thousands of requests)
• Jijomon T – Operations Manager (Best dresser)

Here is the PublisherChallenge team. Standing left to right are: Jijo, Binoi, Subin, Nithin and Rajeev. Sitting left to right are: Soumya and Anoop (and Rajeev in the second photo).

Their positions are:

• Binoi (Owner; Chief Executive)
• Jijomon (Operation Manager)
• Anoop Kumar (Developer involved in the initial stage of the project)
• Nithin Scaria (GUI Designer)
• Subin Jose (Lead Developer)
• Rajeev C (Project Manager)
• Soumya Cleatus (Developer)

I asked them all to do a funny photo or do peace signs but they came up with something even better: my signature pointing pose!

Why I Like Interberry

No Complaining

I’ve worked with Interberry on two very large projects, and being a perfectionist and having a lot of experience with developing websites and outsourcing, I can be very demanding.

Interberry impresses me in that rarely do they ever complain or hesitate to do anything I request. That’s saying a lot because I often send them around 7-10 e-mails a week with lists of new things to add or other requests and they wouldn’t complain at all, they’d just get it done.

This lack of bickering saves a lot of stress and hassle. If what I request is fairly large, then they’ll of course quote me for additional cost, but more often than not they’ll just implement it for me free of charge, especially if its within the original scope of the project.

Fast Turnaround Time

Another thing about Interberry is their fast turnaround time. Even though they were a bit late on both of my projects (hey, I’m being honest here), I’ve yet to get any large development work done on schedule before, and they were still done in a reasonable time despite change requests, added features, etc.

In fact, since I’ve been working with them for quite a while now, we have a pretty good system in place in which I can e-mail them 7-8 small-medium programming changes or additions at night, and by the time I wake up they’re all complete!

On my first project, when we were starting to fall behind schedule they agreed to put extra people on the team and even agreed to work on Saturdays in order to try to hit my deadline.

One day in particular, a website changed their coding which completely messed up my site. Since it was deemed as an ‘emergency’, the owner of Interberry immediately called the lead programmer. It was the weekend and his day off, and he was actually just about to go out to dinner with his wife, but instead went straight to the nearest web café (as work was about an hour’s drive away) to tend to the issue. His wife was not very happy, but I was

Responsiveness & Availability

While available via phone, I mainly communicate with Interberry through Skype chat and e-mail. They’re available on Skype during their working hours for any quick changes or fixes I may need, and for anything really important I can contact the owner’s cell at any time. They also now have a toll-free 1-800 number.

Cost

When I first hired Interberry on Elance, I almost didn’t award the project to them because their proposed bid seemed suspiciously low, and I know you usually get what you pay for. However, they had a perfect past project history rating and I read all of their past transaction feedbacks which were largely positive and couldn’t dismiss those facts.

Their quote on my second project was equally low, although I suspect they gave me an even better deal since I was then a returning customer.

Programming Quality

Overall, I’m pretty satisfied with the level of quality of programming from Interberry.

Simply visit Movie-Vault.com and PublisherChallenge.com to see the level of programming they provide, as those sites should speak for themselves.

The only thing negative I can say about them is that they can often miss the small things, such as design issues. The good news is that they’ll definitely fix anything you request, all you need to do is bring it to their attention.

For those wondering, Interberry didn’t design either Movie-Vault or PublisherChallenge – I hired different freelancers for them. Outsourced oversees programmers and development companies are rarely ever good at graphic design, so I’d recommend hiring somebody else to do the design, and then have Interberry do the programming.

All you need is the source PSD as Interberry has a good guy who can convert your PSD to clean XHTML/CSS/AJAX (that’s what I did with Movie-Vault).

Getting back to programming, one nice thing about Interberry is that they won’t complain and say they can’t do something or that it’s too hard, etc. They’ll find a way to do it, and if it’s not possible then they’ll provide you with a list of alternative options that you can choose from.

Need Programming Done? Try Interberry

I’m sure many of you have hired numerous programmers in the past that left you unsatisfied, I know I have. If you like the programming of PublisherChallenge and Movie-Vault, then you’ll be happy with Interberry.

They prefer to work on larger projects ($3k+) and really enjoy working on big projects ($7k+). They have the staff, so be sure to take advantage of them.

They excel in web programming and developing CMS (content management system), and are therefore great for most website ideas you have.

You can find them of course at Interberry.com in which you can request a quote, phone them  toll-free at +1-888-367-1110 (during 9:30am to 6:30pm Indian Standard Time), or if you’re like me then you’ll want to talk to them via Skype chat. Add cheb.iberry to your Skype contacts for that.

I really don’t like revealing my sources when it comes to designers and programmers so please let them know that Tyler sent you so that I can get some discounted work done in the future

Let me know how your project with them goes!

Two months ago I added polls to my blog and put up 8 polls for you guys to answer. 144 of you filled them out which was a lot better than I was expecting the turnout to be, so I was quite pleased with the result.

As I mentioned in my original post, polls are a fantastic way to gain a quick summary of what your visitors want in the form of numerical data.

In addition, while polling visitors can help me personally make decisions and find out information, when visitors can see what the current vote results are, I think they also in turn provide interesting content to the reader.

Therefore, here are 10 new poll questions for you guys. They vary in topic and theme, which is partly why I was unable to come up with a decent title for this post. Some of them are also not useful to me in the form of data, but are simply there to satisfy my curiosity.

And it’s not like things are slowing down; my $10,000 investment on Movie-Vault.com’s revamp is nearing completion and will be launching in about a week which will require my focus and energy.

So why then have I just started yet another project?

I kept telling myself not to; that I already had more than enough on my plate, to say the least. And with the big revamp of Movie-Vault.com which I consider to be a massive project, adding yet another project to my list should have been the last thing on my mind.

But the idea kept finding its way back into my head, and I couldn’t get rid of it. When that happens, which isn’t all that often, the only thing I can do to stop thinking about it is to give in and develop the site.

And so here I am again, starting yet another project. And this one is pretty big, too.

The Project

Since I only decided to go ahead with the project today, I am not revealing very much about it yet since I don’t want others to possibly copy my idea and develop it before I do. As development progresses, I’ll reveal more information.

Right now, all I can say is that it’s a flash-based multiplayer game.

The game will be free but there will be a paid membership which is optional. I am considering adding two membership options, each being monthly. The “Bronze” will probably be somewhere around $1.99/month and the “Silver” $4.99/month. If the game takes off, it’s obviously easy to add higher-priced Gold and Platinum accounts.

In addition to the paid memberships, there will be ads on the site to help support the free non-paying accounts, which will most-likely account for 95% of the members.

Want to Invest?

For this project, I think I think I’m going to accept a limited number of investors – basically acting as shareholders, which is the reason for this post.

I have not yet received the quotes for this project, but I am assuming it will cost between $5,000-$10,000. So, it’s not the biggest project. Now, depending on the interest (or lack thereof) on investing in this, I may look to get the game done in a higher-quality and level of scale, and invest more into it, something like $10k-$25k, but I think that $5k-$10k should cover pretty much what is needed for what I want.

Investment Options

Note that nothing here is set in stone, especially since I have yet to receive the quotes for the project and the fact that I’m sure some of you will provide better insight into investment options and numbers.

I am basing the following options on the project costing $5,000:

I will only accept investors up to when the cost of the project is met (Ex. If 2 investors want in at the $2,500 level then it will be closed there).

The Return is based on site income, whether it be from advertisements on the site or paid memberships.

If you do the math, the site would need to make a total of $6,666 (bad omen? haha) during the first 18-months in order for you just to break even. This works out to an average of $370 a month. Therefore, if the site manages to make $13k during the first year-and-a-half, you’ve doubled your investment.

There will be a buyout clause, where at any point I can buyout the shareholder for 5x their investment. This buyout will be on top of any return they have received so far. For example, if an investor invests $1,000 and after 5 months I want to buy them out, they will keep whatever Returns they have made so far, plus $5,000 (5x) for the buyout.

The 18-month Return timeframe will begin once the site is finished its development and goes live to the public.

FAQ

Why do you want investors? Don’t you have confidence in your own projects?

This is the first and most natural question, and one that I’d personally ask if I were in your position.

I always have confidence in any project that I end up taking on, or I wouldn’t take them on in the first place. And I have already started the steps in getting this project started (I’m currently getting quotes). I’m therefore ready to fund this project entirely myself, but would rather have investors in this for 2 reasons:

1. I want to minimize my risk.

I already have a lot of money tied up in various projects (Movie-Vault.com revamp, my affiliate marketing efforts, and my other sites) at the moment and don’t have a whole lot of money to spend on new projects. I can and will fund this entirely myself if I need to, but would feel more comfortable if I had investors.

2. I think this would make for a good blog post series.

As ridiculous as this may sound, I can assure you this is true. I often do things for the side-benefit of it being good blog content, and this is one of those things.

I think it’d make for an interesting read to see how both investors in an online project fare from their investment, and how the project itself turns out.

I’m guaranteed to make money on this right?

No! You’re not guaranteed anything. Not a penny. You could invest the full $5,000 (or whatever it may be) and end up $5,000 poorer. This is an investment, and with investment comes risk.

The site could easily fail miserably, so you should feel comfortable with the investment and level of risk involved, and not have to take out a second mortgage on your house if you make nothing back.

Many of my projects have failed, so be prepared for that.

Wait a second, why do you get 25% for doing nothing?

First, it’s my idea and nobody is forcing you to invest

But the main reason is that I’m not “doing nothing”. I am overseeing the project and while that may sound easy, I put in countless hours seeing that everything is done correctly. For example, just overseeing the revamp of Movie-Vault.com, I’ve already put in a good 40-50 work hours working with the developers.

As an investor, you’re the one doing nothing. I’m the one actually working on the site.

Do I get partial ownership of the site along with my return?

No. Merendi Networks Inc. retains full copyright and ownership of the site. Your investment is purely monetary and based on the site’s income.

How can I trust you to report the real earnings and pay me correctly?

You’ll have to trust me and have full confidence in me to report and pay the correct amount as this project isn’t big enough for me to set up some type of joint-PayPal account, etc.

I can give screenshots of PayPal payments, etc. and set investors up with access to the Analytics stats, but in the end you’ll have to trust me. If you’re even the slightest bit apprehensive about trusting me then you shouldn’t consider investing.

Give me some examples of your other projects that have made money

PublisherChallenge.com was my most recent project (since Movie-Vault.com hasn’t relaunched yet) and cost me roughly $7,000 to develop. At 10-months-old, it has brought in $55,000 to date.

PokerForums.org is around 5 years old and has cost me roughly $3,000 to develop and maintain. It has brought in close to $250,000 in site revenue.

TylerCruz.com is several years old and has cost me roughly $1,000 to develop and maintain. It has brought in over $30,000 in revenue, not including affiliate referrals.

Each of these are good examples of where the investment wasn’t very much, but the sites required a lot of my own time and effort. This is more evidence to respond to the “Wait a second, why do you get 25% for doing nothing?” question above.

Remember though, many of my projects have failed, so don’t expect ROI’s such as these to be guaranteed.

How would I sent you the money to invest?

This would depend partly on how the developer is willing to accept payment. If he is willing to accept payment from a variety of sources then having you send the developer the payment would be the best option.

Otherwise, I’d probably just have you PayPal me the money and I’d probably get you to pay the PayPal fees as well (2.9% + $0.30 if you’re from the US/Canada, otherwise 3.9% + $0.30).

I want to invest, but I have a few questions…

Contact me for any questions you have or if you’re ready to invest. I will only divulge details of the site to serious buyers.