The Apple iPhone App Store recently launched a few days ago. iPhone owners have been waiting a long time for this. It allows third party developers to create applications that run with the iPhone. It basically makes the iPhone 100x better then when it comes right out of the box. The app should be out any day now.

One iPhone app I’m waiting for is the Wordpress app. Check out this video of it in action. The app lets you post directly to your blog from your iPhone. You can even timestamp posts and add pictures straight from the phone’s camera. It’s very cool and I can’t wait to start posting to all my blogs from the road or at the mall while my wife is shopping.

Well, I’m back from my week long vacation. On one hand, it’s nice to be away from a computer and having to do work… but on the other hand, when you’re addicted to checking stats and monitoring your sites it can be nerve racking not knowing what’s going on. Now I do have an iPhone, so I was able to check my earnings on a daily basis, but without WiFi where I was staying it was too difficult to check all my websites or even do work on them from the phone. I was running on the EDGE network and it was extremely slow due to a deadzone right where I was staying.

Anyway, I got home yesterday expecting my first check from Market Leverage. My affiliate manager said the payment would be sent via FedEx for delivery on the 15th. 6:00 p.m. came and I still didn’t have it, so I logged in to make sure ML had my correction mailing info. Of course, they did. So then I emailed my affiliate manager asking for a tracking code. He couldn’t get it for me because the accounting department had already gone home for the day, but he told me he specifically remembers them sending out my check. So, 7:00 p.m. rolls around and I get a phone call from FedEx saying they had a package for me that was returned undeliverable. They asked me to verify my address, but this time it was incorrect. So how does the FedEx shipping label get printed with an incorrect address when my address is correct in the Market Leverage system? Who knows. I gave them my correct address, and they said I would receive the package today.

I am also missing my Adbrite check for this month. I always get my Adbrite checks on the 8th or 9th of every month. Well today is the 16th and I still haven’t received it yet. It’s so annoying when big companies like this don’t use Direct Deposit. I emailed Adbrite asking if my payment was sent out and all they told me was that my payment was processed and that it could take like up to 21 business days to be delivered. I don’t understand them sometimes. It always comes at the same time like clockwork for 2 years… so why would it be any different this month.

So if I’m lucky, I’ll have 2 nice sized checks waiting for me when I get home. Other then that, my trip was great and everything seems to be in order. Now it’s back to work for me!

I’m leaving this morning to go on vacation with my wife. We’re actually headed up to Ohio, where she is from, to visit some of her family. This will be my 3rd or 4th trip to Ohio in the last 4 years. Most of the time we spend up there is hanging out with her family that we don’t see often. While we’re up there, her uncle is celebrating his 50th birthday so there will be a big party on Sunday.

One thing we have planned for the trip is a visit to Cedar Point… an amusement park that houses some of the world’s tallest and fastest roller coasters. Cedar Point is about an hour northwest of where we’re staying and it’s located directly on Lake Erie. Saturday, we’ll be going to a Tampa Bay Rays vs. Cleveland Indians game. I haven’t been to a Major League Baseball game in probably 3 years. I think the last one I went to was an Orioles game in Baltimore. It will be fun watching the Rays play because they’re one of the best teams in all of baseball. One final destination I want to make on our trip is to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

In total, we’ll be gone for a week. We come back on Tuesday the 15th. I won’t be posting live while I’m on vacation. I also won’t be working on any of my websites while I’m gone. But luckily we have a nice little friend called “timestamp” on blogs.

Here’s a tip for all the newbies out there. Don’t ever pay for an E-book promising to help make you thousands of dollars by exploiting the secrets of millionaire internet marketers. If you read an E-book title along those lines then you can immediately pass it off as a rip-off. All you will get in these e-books is regurgitated crap and nothing you can’t find on the internet for free anyways.

One webmaster got sick of all the e-books. Jon, the owner of Wicked Fire, created a thread in his forum specifically for giving away all these treasured e-books for free. It’s his way of protesting to the people who help ruin the internet. Jon has received death threats and emails threatening to sue him over this list of free e-books. You can find gems like Duvet Dollars, Day Job Killer, and Google Money Pro. Odds are if you’re looking at buying a “make money online” e-book, you will find it for free in this forum thread. There are currently 37 pages dedicated to providing people with the e-books for free.

I’m not saying ALL e-books are crap, but 95% of them are, especially the ones that try to make you pay for it. Now, you will have to be a member of Wicked Fire in order to get the e-books, but that shouldn’t stop you… registration is free and open to the public. I hope by reading this, I’ve helped save you money!

Today is July 4th, also known as Independence Day in the United States. Today is a day we celebrate our country’s freedom. Over 225 years ago, our fore fathers drafted the Declaration of Independence and officially declared themselves at war with and independent from Great Britain. The American Revolution would go on for years, until eventually the British were defeated and Americans won their freedom. It was at the battle at Yorktown where Lord Cornwallis got his ass kicked by George Washington.

It is on this day every year that Americans celebrate and proudly show their patriotism. Even though we’re at war today in far away lands, we still don’t forget what they’re fighting for. Freedom. It’s something no one should take for granted.

The 4th of July is often celebrated with massive firework displays, cookouts, parades and family get togethers. It’s one of the best holidays of the year. It is a national holiday in America, so we don’t have work or school. All government offices and most businesses are closed.

The reason why I posted a picture of Mel Gibson’s The Patriot is because I try to watch this movie ever year. Some channel like TBS will probably run it all day, but I’ve got the movie on DVD so it’ll be easy to check out. While The Patriot isn’t as historically accurate as you would hope, it gets the message across and definitely instills that sense of American pride in you.Other great movies to watch on Independence Day include: Saving Private Ryan, Independence Day, and Gettysburg.

Today, I’ll also be hanging out at the pool and grilling out with friends and family. And at night we’ll of course go watch a spectacular fireworks display. I hope everyone has a great holiday, even those of you not in America.

I’ve tried my best to avoid talking about Market Leverage over the past month or so. It seems like every big time blogger has been promoting the crap out of them. Market Leverage hit the scene by giving out dozens of prizes on blogs through contests. I was skeptical at first… I always am, but eventually I took the bait and signed up with them.

I actually signed up through Tyler Cruz, determined to win one of the prizes he was giving out. I was eying that $200 AMEX card, but alas, it wasn’t meant to be. I started very strong in the first week or so of the contest, but then everyone caught up and eventually passed me on the top 4 rankings. Some people are very good affiliate marketers and have earned way more then I can. I guess the contest is still going, but at this point, I can’t win a prize. I’m too far behind.

Since joining, I’ve actually been doing quite well. I’ve always been able to make some money here and there from Azoogle, but since the switch to Market Leverage, I’ve notice a nice increase. Check out my stats from June 11 through June 30.

I was able to rack in $301.05 in a very short amount of time. And you know what’s sweet about that? The $301.05 you see is all profit. I don’t spend any money on PPC like Adwords or Yahoo Search. Everything I make from affiliate marketing is from SEO and driving traffic to my websites organically. So you’ll see people in Tyler’s contest who have $500 or $900+, but you have no idea how much money it took them to make that $900. Maybe the dude spent $800 on adwords? We don’t know. So the contest is actually flawed. It’s based on revenue instead of net income.

I’m going to continue to use Market Leverage until I start to see a drop off in earnings, then I may go back to Azoogle. But so far, ML has been great and my affiliate manager has been awesome. If you haven’t signed up with them yet, then I suggest you do. I just signed up my buddy from Political Blog yesterday and he’s already converted 4 leads for cold hard cash from natural traffic. No paid PPC. Here’s my signup link if you want it.