Hustler’s Inspiration: Your Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman

Spiderman. Peter Parker. Mary Jane. Mr. Jamison. The Daily Bugle and saving the world. What do they all have in common with Da Hustle?

Absolutely nothing.

But no, this isn’t an early April Fool’s joke (or late, depending on how you look at it), but rather a great segway in to this week’s inspiration. We all know that the days of working for one company, having a big retirement party and getting the gold watch are pretty much gone. Surviving in today’s world takes skill, tenacity, dedication, and the ability to react to market conditions.

In other words, yes, you need to hustle.

Uh, no.

Depending on any one “job” is fast becoming a means to an end. Sure, you could try to work your way up the corporate ladder, but by the time you reach your goals your kids will be starting college. Who really has that kind of time?

You should learn to model your life after that of a spider. Any one single strand of silk the spider spins isn’t really going to do much good. It has very little strength on its own and is easily broken. However, when a spider spins an intricate web that contains layers upon layers of single strands placed together, the web is infinitely stronger, and the spider has a much bigger chance of survival. Each strand can represent a stream of income in your life; the more you have, the better suited you are for survival in a society that favors survival of the fittest.

Furthermore, a spider’s web can inspire fear in it’s enemies. Think about it: no one really cares about walking through a spider’s web, except for the annoyance of trying to pull the strands of silk off of your hair and clothing. But hardly no one ever enters an intricate web that is plainly seen, because it represents a danger that you would much rather avoid (not to mention you don’t know the size of the spider that created it). This can be represented by corporations that have their hands in everything: who really wants to go up against Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Microsoft, or Google? One corporate lawyer is an equal playing field, but a network or web of lawyers makes even the mightiest of ’spider’s’ a little leary of embarking on that incredible journey.

The word for today’s times is diversification. Don’t know anything about it? Your favorite compnaies do! Here’s a short sample to illustrate:

• Sony makes/owns: televisions, CD players, MP3 players, the PlayStation 3 console, movies (Sony Pictures Studios, Columbia TriStar), music (Sony BMG Music Entertainment) & TV shows (Wheel of Fortune)
• Microsoft makes: Windows (yeah, Da Hustler hates it at times too), XBox, word processing and spreadsheet programs (Microsoft Office), ok so pretty much a lot of software for computers
• GE makes/owns: NBC television, light bulbs (duh), appliances, electronics, movies (Universal Pictures), theme parks (Universal Studios)
• The Walt Disney Company owns: ABC, ESPN & Lifetime television, movies (Touchstone Pictures, Miramax, Pixar), Disney Cruise Line, basically it has a stake in almost anything to do with kids

The list goes on and on. Furthermore, even though you may know these companies to be competitors, almost all of them make deals behind the scenes because the CEO’s know it’s in the company’s best interest to forge profitable partnerships. That’s working smarter and not harder, keeping your ‘enemies’ close, and diversifying.

I implore you to make diversification your new friend. Weave a web of business opportunities for yourself, to insure that if one well runs dry, you have other resources to supplement your financial liquidity. Social Security may not be there for you when you need it, and neither will your boss if it comes time to make tough decisions for the benefit of the company (or his pockets). Even some of the opportunities listed on this site are seasonal, so consider your area of the world and the needs of your local market when you embark on your hustle.

Oh, and here’s an extra tip: the Spiderman costumes look absolutely horrible, so unless you have something that looks like the real thing from the movie, you might want to choose another character this year. Trust me.

Hustle Humor: Halloween Transformers

This video is absolutely amazing, and just in time for Halloween. Does your party have a costume contest? Do you want a guaranteed win? Get one of these bad boys, and you will be the undisputed champion!

So what do you think? Have you seen anyone wearing a similar costume? Da Hustler won’t say anything about how much time these kids had on their hands.

Hustle Tips: Getting Traffic to Your Site & FREE phone numbers!

In real estate, it’s location, location, location. In sales, it’s sell, sell, sell (duh, right?) In teaching, it’s beat the kids into submission. And in law, it’s “If it does not fit, you must acquit.”

Ok, kidding about the last two!

But the golden rule of a website — er, a successful and popular website — is to get traffic to it, almost by any means necessary. Da Hustler wants to help you by introducing some non-traditional ways of getting traffic to your website. Some may work for you, while others may give you the patented George Bush dumbfounded look, but use what works for you and pass these tips on to others that it may help!

1. Find FREE classifieds newspapers in your town. There’s tons of these types of papers, from Creative Loafing to Penny Savers to certain regional papers you might see next to the automobile and employment classifieds on the street. You might also try university newspapers, community newsletters, heck even local newspapers are trying to regain ground lost to craigslist by starting free classifieds. You lose nothing by trying these methods, because they are FREE — Da Hustler’s favorite word! (Thanks D Town Redd)

   

2. Go to the FOR SALE section and post an ad saying you’d like to sell a banging sound system, a cool new iPod, an awesome laptop, or whatever is really popular with the kids these days. Now in the description, list the product in question for a really cheap price, like a $50 iPod or a $200 PlayStation 3. The point is to price it low enough to garner attention, but not too low where no one would believe it. Where would you get the product from you ask? Well, scour the net for those “deals,” the ones that usually have you to fill out surveys or complete some other requirements before you can get the prize listed. Da Hustler doesn’t think these are the best opportunities to spend your time on, but it keeps your advertisement legit and who knows, you may get enough referrals to get yourself a free prize!Next, put a phone number in the ad that routes the calls to a voicemail mailbox. It would be best to use a number that is not your own, unless you just want strangers calling you for days (and these days, the strangers are really creepy). Don’t know where to get a number from? Keep reading.Now it’s time to setup the voicemail greeting. You don’t really have to say much, but here’s an idea for you to get started:

   
   

   “Thanks for responding to my ad! Due to the volume of calls, I’ll only take inquiries from SERIOUS people. If you’re serious about my offer, please visit (record your domain name here). Hope to hear from you soon!”

   Also in the message, be sure to spell your domain name so people will not get letters and words confused (B as in Bob, G as in Gina, O as in Orange, L as in Larry, dot com, etc.). On your site, place a small link to whatever offer you found, so the people who visit from your ad are left hanging. To help you get started, here’s a link to a FREE voicemail mailbox with a local number: http://www.craigsnumber.com (thanks SOLOW)

3. Post your domain name in your e-mail signature. As previously stated on almost every blog known to man that deals in making money and creating traffic, your domain should be listed in almost any correspondence that goes out. It doesn’t matter if it is a forum, e-mail, Match.com profile, Classmates.com profile, inmates.com profile, etc. Whatever and wherever you post information or personal opinions, make sure that you have included your link!!!

   

4. Word of mouth – it almost goes without saying, but some people try to be very secretive about their business ventures until it hits the levels of an eBay or Yahoo. NEWSFLASH!! It probably won’t hit those levels if you aren’t excited and telling everyone you know about it! Try to create a buzz with your peers, family and friends, and don’t tell them anything about the site until they see it for themselves. Da Hustler has had many lazy people try to get a synopsis of My New Hustle | Make Money Online verbally, but it just isn’t gonna happen!

   

5. This might sound a little crazy to some, but it’s actually quite brilliant and done everyday: create a funny video and post it on YouTube. The kicker is, it doesn’t even have to be related to your site content at all… it could simply be about two middle-aged wannabe MC’s freestyle battling or somebody getting owned. At the beginning and end of the video you display a graphic that says, “Brought To You By Show N Tell Productions www.yoursitehere.com.” If it’s good enough it will be seen by thousands, and that translates into thousands of hits!After the success with the first video, do another one. Be sure to keep the same beginning and ending graphics with every video you do so that people will begin to recognize it and stick in their minds. With all the free software found within Microsoft Windows, Apple’s Macintosh and on the internet (ahem, legal software) you can make videos for pennies and in less time than you think. (thanks NubiaNectar)

Sarcastic Gamer is one of the leaders in making funny videos with their tag lines embedded. A couple of their videos have even been featured as humorous spots on My New Hustle.

Stay tuned to My New Hustle, as Da Hustler reveals more ideas on how to route traffic to your site!