I thought about how I really have it good compared to a lot of people. I mean here I am saying I have no post ideas and that I don’t feel like working yet money was coming in from this very blog.

As soon as I realized that I got a new life and am now all of a sudden out of my slump!

“I will be posting content for you all asap, but I may do less post per week as I said and just make them longer guides for now. Only time will tell how things go.. Back on topic now”.

While I basically made zero posts on this blog for 2 weeks I generated over $300 this month in ad-sales from the side-bar, header and in content adverts you see. Not only that but I have some other people wanting ads in slots already pre-paid for the coming months.

Is this just luck? No, I have put time into this resource known as Infected By Bugs and now its paying off.

Anyways… The point of this post is to give you all a little update (which I just did above) and now its time for some meat you can really chew on. I wanted to provide you all with 5 tips to make money when the supposedly the economy is doing really bad.

Tip 1 – When times are tough try to get your community spirit going! This is what I did by making my post with the heart to heart talk, several of you commented publicly and privately I got several emails all telling me to keep the faith and they know I would get out of it. Its really encouraging to see your community respond and care about you!

Tip 2 – Develop a plan. I know its tough when the economy is rough to make a plan but guess what, when the economy is rough its your time to shine and make the dough, but don’t let you plan stop there. Develop a way to keep the advertisers once you get them even when the economy goes back to normal. I have done this by making a list and checking it twice with all there contact info and of course what they previously purchased that way I can return to them at any time and offer them the slot again with a discounted rate for being a past advertiser!

Tip 3 – Plan for Disappointment. In tip 5 I basically tell you how to get advertisers when times are rough but you also need to know that not everyone has money when the economy is down so be ready for a lot of people to turn you down. I once heard someone say they STRIVED on REJECTION, its going to happen sooner or later so get used to it and learn how to handle it guys.

Tip 4 – Don’t be crazy like I am. Seriously guys, just because I spill the beans on everything I do so you all can learn does not mean you have to. If you find an advertiser willing to pay you when the economy is down, dont feel obligated to tell your buds about them. Instead keep silent so they will keep paying you like your the only person alive and blogging anymore. I don’t do this because my name is out there and it would make me look bad but trust me you don’t have to follow my example.

Tip 5 – How to get advertisers when the economy stinks. This is it guys, the turning point is now, here is a 3 step A, B, C plan to getting advertisers when the economy is down. Ready? Go!

A. Generate a list of people to contact, email is fine but postal or cold calling can work even better. Get at least 20 companies on this list that you can contact.

B. Think of ways to monetize your blog for each advertiser. I have found that a lot of companies are willing to advertise if you offer them a new way to advertise that no-one else is doing. It allows them to try it out and maybe come out of the deal with a bargain! But don’t ever be afraid to push your already open slots.

C. Go Get Em Slugger. This is the hardest part, if your afraid of rejection, confrontation or making money then you are out of luck because its time to go get the advertisers. This is when you call them, email them whatever details you believe are important. Stats are always good and flaunting your rss subscriber count never hurts. Once you are in talks with the correct person at each company make a list of these people and send them the details. Do not let them get off the phone or stop responding to your emails until you get a yes or a no answer from them. The main key here is to get an answer and always have a backup lower price plan in the back of your mind just in case. Advertisers will be impressed with how organized you are and may try you out on the simple fact that you had all your ducks in a row!

And that right there is the A, B, C method to making money when times are rough! I guarantee it will work guys, just try it and don’t be afraid no matter the size of your site or blog.

You know all those 30 minute paid advertisements on tv that you see late at night sometimes? Well today I wanted to talk about such programs, I am not here to bash anyone nor to say that all these programs don’t work but in my opinion anyone who has to pay for an advertisement on the tv can’t possibly be that great…

If the program was that great don’t you think you would have heard about it already from a friend or family member? I think this can apply to any product, if you don’t hear about it from a friend or someone you trust how can you know its really worth getting especially when you have to pay for it?

There are literally hundreds of these programs available with new ones being created all the time, I really just want to see one product that actually works without hassles like its suppose to. Can someone please create that?

I am so tired of all the rip-offs and scam artists who think its funny to mess with people trying to learn, I have been burned for tons of money in the past and it really makes me mad to know that they do it simply because they thinks its funny and that they can, don’t they realize they will eventually reap what they sow?

This was just a short rant post but feel free to chime in and comment below letting me know what you think of these get rich quick programs and schemes that seem great but only end in frustrating dead-ends!

If you can’t already see it all around this post then your not looking very hard, we have spent several weeks readying this new look for Infected By Bugs and we believe its a winner! We have done this for a few reasons and in this post I want to outline a few of those and also cover some news that is coming next month for Infected By Bugs!

Why The New Theme?

The main reason I decided to go ahead and get a new theme for IBB is because the old one simply did not offer anything to my readers that made them say wow this is a site I can trust upon their first look. I am by no means saying we accomplished that with this new theme either but I believe its a huge step in the right direction, what do you think?

Along with the fact that our old theme did not scream professionalism, the theme really did not have any more room to grow in terms of advertisement slots and places for highlighted content. Our new theme offers both, advertisement wise there is a new 468 x 60 slot which you can grab right now if you want along with a new system we plan on trying in the coming months. On the other hand I believe highlighting top priority content / reads for my readers is important but the old theme had no place to do that on. This new theme actually does this with the new javascript / flash 4 feature post rotators that’s on the homepage.

That brings me to another interesting point, did anyone notice how clean-cut the homepage now looks? It no longer is a super long page with the last 5 posts on it, instead its showing snippets of the latest 4 posts which shortened the page up to about half the length! I am hoping this speeds up loading times and bot search ability for better seo overall.

Another great thing about this new theme is the fact that our menu is now at the top of the site, before it was hidden down on the bottom right of the blog and the pages got barely any clicks because people simply did not see them.

One of my favorite new things is the logo we had created by my buddy who helps video tutor over at PixelForLife. He did an awesome job and I recommend you contact him if you need a logo or any other graphics work done!

How does the new look help in terms of traffic / social media?

This theme is built specifically to help increase traffic and help you all connect with me on other social sites such as twitter and youtube. If you look at the footer, there is a place for all of these where you can visit me and just say hi or see what I am currently doing.

Not only that but by me only putting snippets on the home-page instead of the full posts I have instantly generated an extra click from everyone who reads my posts, why? Because you can’t read it without clicking the link into the post! I am hoping this increases my page-views which in turn will allow me to up my advertising prices!

News for later on!

That brings me to my last words for this post, I have so many things in the works for you guys its not even funny but one that I want to reveal is probably going to be the biggest of all (maybe not, we shall see). Here it is…

You know my old IBB theme? How about the themes I have had on other blogs before? Does anyone know what I did with them?

Well to be completely honest I didn’t do anything with them, they have been rotting away hard-drive space on my machine for far to long, so now its time to kick things up a notch here on IBB and here is what I am going to do.

We are going to start a wordpress theme section which can be access anywhere in the site on the top menu once the project goes live.

From this page you will be able to grab one or all of my themes completely free of charge!! The only catch is that you must leave my footer link on but guess what? For only $9.95 you can have that link removed and your readers will never know where you got the theme.

I hope you all enjoy the new theme along with the new features I have planned, be sure and leave a comment below and let me know your thoughts!

Well today I first wanted to ask if any of you have ever had a lemonade stand and what your results were?

I never ran a lemonade stand myself but I did have other business ventures that helped me learn a lot about business, making money, losing money and saving money as well.

However whether you ran a lemonade stand or not it does not determine your outcome as a business person or even as a blogger, its time to break out of the lemonade stand mentality and dream of something bigger.

You all remember my post last year which listed my 2009 goals, well I have begun working on them and to help the process along I have decided to create an ebook to help generate some income for this blog. I haven’t decided what the ebook will be about yet only that I will write one and sell it here on ibb for about $14.95 per copy.

If you have any ebook ideas then feel free to let me know about them and if I choose your idea I will give you a cut of each sale I make (that’s just how we roll at ibb).

The Lemonade Stand mentality for me would be giving up on IBB after one year of blogging because it did not grow in every way like I had hoped. But why would I want to do that? With a little more love and possibly a few more lemons squeezed ibb will be the blog I have dreamed of.

Its all in your vision and how you look at things, I look at a website and see potential while others look at it and see a failure. I just wanted you all to know that I am not giving up on ibb and you can expect great things to happen this year of 2009!

Here is a screenshot listing the clicks (total at the bottom). You can click it for a full screen version!

Now you go find me another blogger who will show you there advertisers clicks! I bet you won’t find any, know why? Because they don’t get clicked!

My blogs advertisers do get clicks and I encourage you to take part in this and get clicks yourself! Just go here to buy a slot!

I want to go on record by saying that Suzanne Franco did not pay me to review her site. I decided to do it because we have become friends and that’s just what friends do!

On with the review we go…

In this review I have several things I want to cover such as design, content and of course my thoughts. However before I get into that I think you all should know a little bit about Suzanne and her blog! Here is a small snippet I grabbed from her site.

I am mom to 3 awesome kids ~ Austin 12, Nathan 10 and Emily 9 and soon-to-be stepmom to yet 2 more ~ Alyssa 8 and Cobey 6. We live in the Texas Hill Country where I work from home and enjoy running several online businesses.

I have a true passion for helping others live their dream of working from home too. If you currently work from home and could use some pointers on promoting your business online or if you would like to be working from home but do not really know where to start, just take a look at the pages on the top left or browse by category and I am certain I can help in some way.

I am happy to say that Suzanne not only does this well but she goes over and above to help people who frankly… I might not give the time of day to.

I think the fact that she is a mother of 3 she has tons of patience and is able to help people even when they don’t get it! What else can I say, Suzanne simply put is “A Great Gal To Know, Work With And Have As A Friend”. I for one am honored to be in the friend class with her as she stated on her blog in this post (at the bottom).

Blog Design

When I first saw Suzanne’s blog I actually had a bad taste in my mouth. I always critique websites that don’t display right (she still has not fixed that problem) but I do believe she will soon enough.

However after reading a couple of her posts and her about page I realized that she lived in Texas like I do. I thought it would be great to connect to another blogger who lived in the same state as someday I would like to start a Texas bloggers meet up where bloggers from Texas meet up for a weekend or something.

So anyways, I decided to email her I went to her contact page and sure enough she makes it simple to contact her and she is more then willing to answer questions and help people out. So I sent my email off to her and waited (a couple hrs tops) before I received a reply from her.

I emailed back and forth with her a couple of times and before I knew it we just seemed to hit it off. We both love blogging, making money and our families. I have not told her much about my family yet (been busy like crazy) but that will come in time I suppose.

I guess the moral of the story here is “Don’t judge a book or blog by its cover. Just because it has some messed up elements does not mean the blogger behind it does not have there act together. Its quite often the other way around”.

Anyways about her design…

Its a very sleek and good looking blog (aside from the ie6 display issue I have “yes I still use ie6 and I always will”). I quite like the green color she chose to use throughout her blog and her header is simply awesome.

In case for some odd reason her blog won’t load for you here is a screenshot of it.

 I also really like the looks of her subscribe section, its actually what gave me the idea to tweak mine. Its something different, it stands out and I for one am a huge fan of it! I can see this starting a chain re-action!

Blog Content

So Suzanne’s blog is up-to par but hows her content? Well I’ll tell you, its amazing! I don’t see many bloggers taking the time to really write great content these days in the mmo niche. I think that’s why most of the blogs fail within the first few months.

In my opinion you can tell a blog is going to make it or break it within 3-4 months of being up. Suzanne’s outlook on blogging is perfect for the mmo niche and I would bet that is why she is doing so well. Don’t let her fool you though, she only provides great content so you will subscribe!

Her content is always good and its easy to read because she writes it so well. Here are a couple of my most favorite posts that she has written on her blog that I have had time to read!

• 21 Ways to Increase Your RSS Subscribers
• Guru Roundup Update … Wow! This Is Fun!
• Top 7 Home Business Ideas
• Video Blogging, Vblog, Vlog … New on the Blog!

This is just a taste of what she offers at her blog on SuzanneFranco.com be sure to check it out and subscribe to show your support for her awesomeness!

Seriously though, her content is always unique, well written and very professionally done. Its quite often some of my favorite content to read and I am a daily reader to her content now. I suggest you sign up to her RSS as well if you want to be “In The Know”. 

My Final Thoughts

I have said it before and I will say it again… Suzanne Franco is a great blogger and I look up to her ability to help people with the up-most regard. Not only is she a great blogger, mom and business woman but she is also a great person right down to her soul.

I encourage you to visit www.suzannefranco.com today and be sure to let her know you found her blog through IBB. I bet all of you become readers of her blog because she can really help you just as I try to do myself.

Oh and one last thing, here is a small video Suzanne made for all of you!

God Bless and enjoy!

- Bug Man, Shannon Lilly

Whats most interesting this time around is that Joe’s blog gets about double to triple the comments mine does but I still have more subscribers. Its sad and hopeful at the same time so this contest could easily go either way!

Basically the loser of this challenge will have to read off a script that the other blogger gives them on video to be humiliated by. Its all in good fun though and I don’t mind losing as if you can’t tell from my last few videos I don’t mind being embarrassed on video all that much

With that said here is how things will work:

Me and Joe are going at it head to head for 1 week to see who can gain the most subscribers! There are no rules or limits to how we can do this but one thing is for sure (one of us has to win). If its a dead even tie then we keep going till someone wins!

IBB Current RSS Sub Count: 608
ImWithJoe.com Current RSS Count: 184

Thats about it guys, whoever makes this happen will have the praise of knowing what they did and a large % of the blogosphere will know as well! I am hoping to get an ebook up for you guys to encourage you to signup to my rss and don’t forget to tell your family and friends if you love me or if you hate me!

I am interested to know why the KING of making money online would waste his time on my little blog

I am honored to have him seeing my blog and it means a lot to me, I was shocked and would like to know what you all think of this?

I mean, does john visit your site? I know he checks out different blogs (keep tips on em prolly) but its still kind of cool!

No its awesome!

I don’t know what it is but I’m happy and want to know what you all think of this!

Oh look Joe was also visiting! So was Ethan and Alex! Man I have way to many great blogging friends, I need to start a blogging friends section or something!

Peace out!

Thanks for watching guys! As mentioned in the video here are the links!

Taking on Joe from www.imwithjoe.com soon!

Here is Suzanne’s site: www.suzannefranco.com be sure to read and subscribe coz she rocks!

I also I wanted to let you know about a new tool that Winning The Web launched the other day called IM Top Blogs. Basically, it’s the ultimate ranked list of the best Internet marketing blogs in the industry. It factors in data from Feedburner, Alexa, Compete, Technorati, Google PR, Yahoo links, StumbleUpon, delicious, and some others to create a more accurate list of the top blogs.

Check it out!

Oh and my new project www.pixelforlife.com

He has made good on the deal we made and here is his awesome confession video that you all should watch and learn from!