Here’s the scoop: many of you may know that PayPal offers 1% back on all of your purchases when you use their debit card. I don’t know why they do it, but I really don’t care either. because I’m getting some of my money back which is cool. Well, their debit card is FREE, and once you register to get one, you receive it in a couple of days. Here’s what you do from here to get the money:

• Make sure ALL of your purchases are done with the PayPal MasterCard. If you have another card that has better perks than 1% cash back, that’s cool, but if not, use this one.
• If possible, I would try to pay every bill from the rent payment on an apartment to your mortgage payment, car payment, etc. HOWEVER, make sure your creditors accept credit cards as a form of payment, AND that there is no fee to pay your bills this way. Many utilities charge a fee when you pay by credit card. Da Hustler hates that they can get away with this, because I have a merchant account to accept credit cards and in the terms and conditions, I cannot charge customers a fee solely to recoup the fees I have to pay to accept the cards. Furthermore, since I see it as the cost of doing business, I think these merchants should just eat it instead of adding to their profit margin.
• Once the bills are paid, check your PayPal account for the “Chargeback Bonus.” DO NOT SPEND THIS MONEY! Sent it to a online savings account, such as one with ING and earn interest on your bonuses. Also do not allow the money to sit in your PayPal account for even one day, because you could have been earning money with it. If you don’t have an ING account, send me an e-mail, and I’ll send you a link to get you an extra $25 in your account when you deposit $250!
• Getting $0.01 back on $1 doesn’t seem like much at first, but it adds up. If you spend $2500/month, you’ll get back $25. While it is small, this adds up to an extra $300/year plus interest if you use this method. (If you don’t want that, Da Hustler will take it!)
• To make things easier, you can setup your PayPal account to automatically take the money from your checking account in case your PayPal balance is too low to cover a charge. This way you can still have the money come from your main account while getting the benefit of the 1% cash back.

Once you do it a few times, you’ll start to get the hang of it, and it will be a transparent part of your day. Keep Hustlin’!

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’ttell 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)

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

In these days of high energy prices, StarBucks addiction and global inflation, hustling is at an all-time high. Countless numbers of people all over the world are working 2 to 3 jobs just to make ends meet — or get close enough to at least wave at each other! It seems as if it can be a never-ending cycle, one that can make you grow old before you know it, wondering what happened to the past 40 years of your life.

Sometimes, however, the best way to make more money is to just save more money! In addition to the easy standard cost-cutting measures, such as not going out as much (duh), watching DVD’s instead of going to the movies (hey, you always get a good seat), and buying store brand items over the national brand (except for Honey Nut Cheerios…I can’t skimp on that one), there is another way to save a bit more money while also doing your part for the environment:

Pull the plug on the electronics and appliances you are not using.

Yes, unplug! Now if you are thinking to yourself, “I already turn off the lights when I leave a room, why do I have to now unplug every item as well?” then you are not alone. I used to thing the same thing: my computer goes into sleep mode when I’m not using it, I switch off my electrical components when they are idle, and I use natural light whenever possible. Well, it seems as if these efforts aren’t good enough anymore, and by unplugging we can actually step-up this money-saving hustle. This article tells a story about a man’s energy usage, and how much he saved by unplugging equipment versus just turning it off. If it’s a way to hustle the electric company (legally), then I’m all for it!

After you read the article, you might be tempted to start implementing the procedures, then watch your monthly power bill. Well it occurred to me that you don’t have to unplug everything! If you really want to start saving money in this manner, try flipping a few switches at your fuse box instead of putting yourself into contortions trying to get to an outlet. It not only saves you time, but it’s a smarter way to conserve the energy not being used in your home. Flip the switches before you go to bed and before you leave your home for work, then look for corresponding savings on your bill. It may not be much, but it adds up over time, and if we all did it, it would help to ensure a brighter future for our children and maybe one that is less dependent on foreign energy sources.

When it comes to getting ahead of the blogging game, the weekends are indeed the right time, and the best time. What normally happens on weekends, especially during the summer? People are on vacation, or out shopping, playing outdoor sports, or simply curled up in the bed with not a worry in the world. Fewer people think about getting online, unless they don’t have better things to do. Da Hustler used to get depressed at his numbers on the weekend, but not anymore. You have to realize the reality of the situation, then adjust to it accordingly.

So instead of lamenting and not doing anything because ‘no one will see or read it anyway,’ use the weekends as a time to either catch up on missed posts, or prepare for the upcoming week. In addition, you can visit other blogs and chime in on what they posted the past week. Send out your e-mails to them so they’ll get them Sunday night or first thing Monday morning.

Want a John Chow-style evil trick? Due to the posting hiatus, people aren’t posting as much and people aren’t reading as much, so you can take this time to rise to the top of Top Commentator lists! This is an evil little trick I discovered early on, and as long as you don’t spam and actually add to the conversation, the blogger will welcome your addition while you enjoy the climb to the top. To be even more sinister, use the time to reply to really old posts if the blogger didn’t post much this week, or if you already responded to a few and honestly have nothing more to add. It gives them more activity and appreciation for the work they did long ago, and pushes you and your brand up higher.

If you organize your time right, you can have a time for work and a time for play during the weekend. You don’t have to give up your life to blog, but just maximize your time so that you can get the full benefit of all the hours of the day. Then no matter what time it is, to you it will always be the right time!

A lot of people — especially when they first get on the scene — want to know how to build up their reader base. How do you get people to come to your website and check you out? How to you bump up your feedburner stats? How do you get more comments?

Well the traditional ways — commenting on other sites, taking part in discussions, offering good content — are all good and valid, but I’ve found a great way to almost guarantee that people will come check you out again and again:

Hustle the newbies and lame, boring punk bloggers.

Oh yeah, I said it! It sounds harsh, but it’s true, and for different reasons. Taking the newbies first, they are getting their feet wet and know nothing about blogging, except what they read online about making money and seeing ShoeMoney’s infamous check. You really have to have your own reasons for blogging these days, because everyone and their momma wants to make money online, but about 95% of that group doesn’t want to put in the work required to rise to the level of an A-List blogger. Da Hustler started out on that track, truth be told, but quickly found his niche and is definitely giving the blogging world something different than strictly learning how to make money online.

Ok, back to the newbies. Because they are indeed new, they often want someone to hold their hand and lead them through the cold, murky waters of the unknown. They want to learn from your successes, mistakes and failures so they can be the best little blogger they can be. Who can blame them? And when they start out, they really want attention, so if you comment a few times on their site, they will see you as someone who cares; you took the time to reply to their post, give them advice, and point out a flaw on their site, and for that they will be eternally grateful.

Oh, and they really love when you send e-mails to them. Whether it’s personal advice or a nice comment, they will eat it up like fried chicken at a family picnic.

So what’s the deal with the punk bloggers? When you come across these people, you’ll know it because they have erratic posting schedules, they are begging for attention and have only one or two comments among 75 of their posts. Also, they’ve been on the scene for a good while now, and they love to make excuses for why they are doing something. You’ll notice they apologize a lot, but judging from the lack of comments, I often wonder who exactly are they apologizing to? I love these bloggers because when you leave a comment, they treat you like the rescue helicopter after Hurricane Katrina. They’ll absorb your attention like a sponge, and if you drop in consistently and leave a brief:

I like what you said, you’ve got some good insight!

or even:

That is okay, but you should think about the person who may not feel that way

prepare to add another dependent to your tax forms next year.

Some may think this is slightly unethical, and if you really have no other motive than to boost your blogroll or visitor counts, then yeah you’re just plain wrong. Da Hustler likes to help people big and small, young and old, and although you can’t make people have better habits which would truly boost their brand (posting more often, going out and telling the world you’re out there, etc.), you can encourage them along the way, and since you are one of the few who took the time to do that, they will love you for it.

In this new worldwide economy, convenience is king, and according to Visa, cash is cumbersome (even though those commercials are so stupid to me! Show me a retailer that will refuse cold hard cash, and I have some land to sell to him!). People are forever on the go and would rather travel with one or two credit cards versus a wad of cash in their pockets. Not only are the cards less cumbersome, but they have security benefits as well: cash is easily stolen and seemingly has no ‘owner’, while a would-be robber would have to have a credit card machine on hand to do anything with the card he gets from your wallet. By the time he tries to charge whatever, you would have alerted the credit card company and it would be canceled.

With these facts, it only makes sense for you to cash in on this trend. No matter how big or small you are, you increasingly cannot afford to be left out of the digital age. But I hear you…you wonder what this has to do with profiting online, or even offline for that matter. You say:

• I’m too small of a merchant to warrant the purchase of a machine;
• I don’t do enough sales;
• I don’t even know where to get one;
• I would hate carrying it around;
• My website isn’t ready for e-commerce;
• I have no products to sell, only services;
• People pay me in cash and I love it! I don’t want to change;
• No one has even asked me about accepting credit cards;
• I’m a Pisces;
• The charges would eat into my income and I don’t want to do that;
• I heard that people can cancel their orders when they get back home, and that would leave me shafted. No thanks;
• Bush stole the election;
• Hillary showed some cleavage

And so on and so on. Well guess what you are doing? MAKING EXCUSES! I ought to call Mr. T right now and tell him that you are acting just like fool!

Allow Da Hustler to de-bunk these myths one by one:

• Think you’re too small?You always will be if you only think that way.
• Not enough sales? How many MORE could you be doing if you offer convenience?
• Where to get one?Simply search on Google or talk to your bank!
• Hate carrying it?Yeah, I hate carrying money too…NOT!
• Site not ready?PayPal makes any website ready in minutes! (click the link for details)
• No products?People pay for services with credit cards too.Oil changes, manicures, eating out, etc.
• Customers pay you in cash?Electronic cash doesn’t spend the same? Ok then!
• Customers haven’t asked you?So what?You promote your products and/or services don’t you?Promote payment methods also!
• Pisces? Uh, okay…
• You don’t want charges?I don’t want taxes!It’s part of doing business.Does Wal-Mart complain about credit card fees?
• Dishonest customers?Have you heard of counterfeit money?How often do you get it?Well that’s about as often as you will get a chargeback!
• Bush stole the election?Yes he did…
• Hillary exposing herself?Why are you looking that close?Focus on the ISSUES!

Da Hustler isn’t gonna be gentle and hold your hand through this one. I’ve had a machine for about 3 years now, and it was one of the best decisions I made! For one, customers don’t have any excuses anymore, such as ‘I don’t have any cash on me,’ or ‘I can’t afford it right now.’ (Let me ask my wife/husband is still popular, so still trying to figure a way around that one). Getting paid electronically lowers my liability as well, so would-be thug gansta thieves will only get receipts instead of cash if they try to collaborate and rob Da Hustler. Plus it saves a trip to the bank…and why waste gas going to a place, getting in a long line and possibly dealing with a rude representative who has had a bad day if you don’t have to? Finally, and this is huge: most people are SURPRISED when I tell them that I accept credit cards! This is something that they just don’t expect from a hustler. It makes them feel so much more comfortable about doing business with you, and a confident customer is a repeat customer.

Storefronts and retail outlets aren’t the only ones with this advantage anymore, as wireless terminals are the staple of many businesses. Also, you don’t need to have a wireless terminal…there are many options such as internet and telephone processing. Your merchant services provider can also offer check processing in your package, and they can verify that funds are available before you accept it! Your bases are covered! So stop making excuses, and incorporate the acceptance of credit cards into your hustle. You’ll be glad you did.

The type of terminal Da Hustler uses. It’s wireless, it’s quick…
but where are the arms of the person holding this unit?!

16 hustles…when are you going to get started?

People have stuff. A LOT of stuff. And when people move, they take their old stuff with them, while adding MORE stuff to what they already have. This creates a houseful of old and new stuff, sometimes so much they need extra storage (but that’s another topic). This is concept #1.

People also are forgetful. Some forget where they parked. Some forget names. Sometimes I forget what I ate two days ago. My mother forgot my sister’s birthday (and my sister was the one to remind her, go figure). The point is, people have a hard enough time keeping up with daily events, so of course, they don’t have time to think about their stuff until they need it. This is concept #2.

I know you remember this, from the 13th Hustle? The owner probably doesn’t want to.

Now take these two concepts, add them together and what do you get? (If you said some dummies, you might be right. But Willis if you talkin’ ‘bout my sister, I’m going to pay you a visit real soon!) What you get are people who forget about their stuff until they really need it. This lack of awareness has created a market where you get paid to go through people’s stuff, better known as snooping, oops, I mean a home inventory specialist.

The idea behind this hustle is simple: get a log of all the possessions in a home so it can be used for insurance purposes. The reason that it’s a good idea to start now is because it’s before the hurricane season kicks into full gear. So many people move to Florida every year, I often wonder if there is more room left in the state. But in recent years, we’ve seen that Florida is not the only market for hurricane disasters. All of the states that are along the Gulf of Mexico — Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas — have all felt the destructive force of hurricanes. Moreover, states such as Arkansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina are susceptible because hurricanes often spur tornadoes, and those are horrific as well. Da Hustler has never been in a hurricane but is terrified of tornadoes; something about seeing the clouds touch the ground just freaks me out.

Back to the hustle. Getting an accurate inventory of all household items is a tedious task that no one really has time for, so this is where you come in. You can offer your services as part of a ‘welcome package’ to new residents of any one of these states. You can also make more money in the wee hours before any particular storm if a homeowner neglected the task and is busy preparing to get the heck out of dodge, but needs this information for the insurance agents after the storm hits. By being a professional and unbiased business, you earn the authority that the insurance companies are looking for, because we all know how they hate to pay out money to anyone not on their payroll (and sometimes even them too). In light of this, you could act as the representative of the homeowner to facilitate the claims process while they are still away at a safe haven, thus shortening the time of resolution and earning more on top of the original service! By the time they return, all information would have been taken and the homeowner would see you as a godsend, thus spurring more word-of-mouth advertisement. How’s that for a 3-for-1?

If you’re located elsewhere in the world, fear not! This hustle is applicable as preventative maintenance for all types of disasters, such as fires, floods, theft, mudslides, etc. Typically, upper middle-class to wealthy individuals will be able to afford this service, and that’s exactly who you want because you can charge more per hour. To start, rates could range between $20-$30/hour, but based on your performance and availability can quickly shoot up to $50+/hr. Work a 4-5 hour day doing a couple of homes (and businesses too, don’t discriminate), and you’re looking at $5000/month or $60k per year, writing down text on a page and taking some pictures. The more sophisticated your ‘options (pictures, video, computer-generated reports), the more you can charge because it enhances your business and your perception. Learn your craft, teach it to others and have them operate under you, then just check in from a distance.

If I make it sound really simple, that’s because it really is. Get ya hustle on!

Contests are really selfish enterprises that benefit two groups: the website owner, and the people who actually win the prizes. Everyone else is left hanging, walking away with their tail between their legs with their eyes open for the next opportunity to win something. But do you realize what you are doing when you enter a contest, no matter how big or small?

Please tell me you said yes. Please, please? With sugar on top?

Ok, for those that don’t know, a contest is only a ploy to get more traffic to a site. If you think about what comprises the word — con, meaning something that is meant to mislead or befuddle, and test, something meant to give you a challenge or force you to otherwise prove something — put them together and you have something that confuses and misleads you while challenging you at the same time! You’re confused because you think that you’re trying to win a prize, and to do so you’re challenged with one or several tasks (challenges) you have to complete! Often they want you to do some legwork:

• Place a link on your site that leads to theirs (like on your coveted blogroll);
• Make a comment on another site about their contest;
• Do a review on their site (now they get more free reviews);
• Subscribe to their RSS feed (now it appears they are more popular than if people did it on their own);
• Make the most comments on their site (you spend so much time there you don’t have time for anything else, and they get virtually guaranteed traffic);
• Be the first to comment on their newest posts (same as above);

Everything that they ask you to do is in fact more promotion for their website or brand. Sure, it may seem like you’re spending two extra minutes here and there, but as you browse the web — especially blogs — you see more and more of them being held and more and more lucrative prizes being distributed to entice you to work even harder:

• Free link for one month
• Free banner advertisement
• Free book (The 4-Hour Work Week is pretty hot right now, and John Chow is giving away his 4th one already!)
• Free digital camera (DevDad is giving away one of these)
• Free XBox 360, PlayStation 3 and/or Nintendo Wii
• Review me for a link back to your site (a comment can do the same thing)
• And the mother of all of them at the moment: free cash! Specifically $2,500 courtesy of Ashwin Khanna

Heck, I just saw that they are selling links on eBay!

Now I’m not bashing the website owners because I know what their trick is. Heck, you might see a contest on My New Hustle one day! But as someone trying to build up a reputation online or grow a business, you can’t afford to waste time on such exploits. There are NO guarantees that you will win these things, so you’re doing all this hard work for the chance at winning something, and odds are you won’t win anything! You are essentially a contract employee who is working for comp time…free labor that you don’t even have to see or talk to on a regular basis (almost like a machine…set it and forget it!). At the end of the day, you are essentially still working for ‘the man.’ I stopped doing free labor when I left my parents house, so why do you want to continue giving someone else the upper hand?

Get YOUR hustle on!

Until now.

This has to be one of the most overlooked hustles that I have come across in the last 30 YEARS! Creating your very own ‘Map to the Stars’ and selling tours to famous addresses in your city is a great way to make some extra income, or make it into a full-time position. However, this doesn’t have to be limited to just the starts, as you can included historic landmarks or lesser-known but interesting locations that tourists often overlook. Here’s how it works:

• Find out where the rich and famous people in your city live. Also make note of any attractions that guests of the city may find interesting (if your city has a channel that shows these spots, take notes).
• Think about the things that you have found interesting that is not mentioned in any promotional material. Cool nightlife spots? A place to make pottery? Where o go to see the best views of the city? The possibilities are only limited by your imagination.
• Place these locations on a map, and arrange a tour that will take about an hour to complete that doesn’t have you driving all around town.
• Get permission from the home owner’s association before you go driving through exclusive neighborhoods. If you have to, arrange to give a percentage of your profits to the association for allowing you to bring your visitors through (donations to charity are also a good selling tactic). Especially for has-been stars, you’d be surprised at how many are willing to get in the limelight again any way they can.
• Create flyers or brochures and get them into your local airport or tourist destination. Also, get involved with your city’s Chamber of Commerce and see if you can be included with any of their promotions. Give them a free sample tour to get them talking about your unique tour that even they can’t offer.
• Rent a fun party bus or van that you can use for cruising with your tour guests.
• Get a merchant account and wireless terminal so you can take credit cards on the spot, and not have to deal with the burden of cash.
• Smile and get paid from the next group of tourists!

So how do you make over $100k per year doing this? Here’s the math:

• $15 per person to take a 1 hour tour, or $25 for two hours.
• Get about 15 people to take the tour, then you have $225/hour.
• Do four tours a day, and you’ve made $900.
• Work four days a week and you’ve made $3,600 (more than most people make per month already).
• Translate this into a yearly income, and this is well over $100,000 even when you factor in the expenses!

This works because it targets people who have money and want to spend it, but don’t know where to do to do so. The best times are probably going to be mornings and early afternoons, when traffic is lighter and before rush hour. Do a couple of tours yourself to get familiar with the locations, then outsource the driving and guiding to someone else. As you grow, you can also partner with local businesses and offer the tourists free coupons that the businesses pay for. You get paid, the tourist gets to see new places, and the businesses get more traffic. Truly a win-win for all!

Also, if you can’t get into the neighborhoods where the stars live, you can just ride by and show your guests the subdivision where they live. The streets are public and you are breaking no laws by doing this, and often this is enough to spark interest anyway

So when is the last time you saw a tour bus in your city? Hopefully your answer will be the last time you or someone you hired was driving it!

Guest posting on other websites has been around for a while now, but still so few people take advantage of it. For those who do not know about the phenomenon, it is basically placing your content on another blogger or website owner’s website for increased exposure and possibly increased traffic to your site. This is especially helpful in the early days of blogging, but can help to maintain your credibility down the road as well. What ytou want is exposure, and guest blogging fits the bill perfectly

I’ve taken the plunge and have a couple of posts out there floating around. Hopefully these stats on my most recent post will persuade some of you to put your fingers to the keyboard to get more exposure for yourselves and start making some money!

Website hosting my guest post: www.icanmakebigmoneyonline.com
Google PageRank: 4
Technorati ranking (as of 7/30/07): 5148 (Top 10k designation)
Technorati Authority: 593
Alexa Rating: 102,952
Online Since: July 11, 2005

My guest post can be found here: http://www.canimakebigmoneyonline.com/index.php/20070729-smoke-and-mirrors/

They say that seeing is believing, so I hope I can inspire some of you out there with my words and actions!