This Blog Has Moved!

We've got a new site, so check out BootstrappingWithoutBoots.com

Bootstrapping Without Boots 2.0 is Coming Soon

Rome wasn't built in a day, and rebuilding and redesigning the Bootstrapping Without Boots curriculum to better serve you takes time.

In the meantime, if you want to be notified when the new site is up and running, please sign up for our newsletter below:

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Also, you can help us provide the best and most useful information for you if you take a few minutes to fill out our brief survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/B7Y6BFR

By the way, since we’re not spending any money this week, nothing is being subtracted from our remaining balance of $353.34.

Don't forget to check out the YouTube videos that have been uploaded to my Youtube Channel: YouTube.com/BootstrappingWithout

Leave comments on this blog, or send me an email at “podcasts[@]bootstrappingwithoutboots.com”.  There’s also a Twitter account where you can reach out to me in 140 characters or less, and that’s withoutboots.  Finally, you can give me a call on my Google Voice Line at 615-59-BOOTS (that's 615-592-6687).

Kindra Cotton, Small Business Survival Specialist
Serial Entrepreneur: Jill of All Trades and Master of Two (Information, Technology)

Vote on the New Bootstrapping Without Boots Logo

Using the Best Kept Secret of FiveRR.com, I've had a logo designed for this blog.  I'd like your opinion on the new Bootstrapping Without Boots Logo, so please vote (using the Poll on the right) and let me know which logo should be the new one of the "Bootstrapping Without Boots" Brand.

Here are the choices:

By the way, since we’re not spending any money this week, nothing is being subtracted from our remaining balance of $353.34.

Don't forget to check out the YouTube videos that have been uploaded to my Youtube Channel: YouTube.com/BootstrappingWithout

Leave comments on this blog, or send me an email at “podcasts[@]bootstrappingwithoutboots.com”.  There’s also a Twitter account where you can reach out to me in 140 characters or less, and that’s withoutboots.  Finally, you can give me a call on my Google Voice Line at 615-59-BOOTS (that's 615-592-6687).  

Kindra Cotton, Small Business Survival Specialist 
Serial Entrepreneur: Jill of All Trades and Master of Two (Information, Technology)

Enhance Your Online Reputation: Write for Examiner.com

A lot of people have contacted me with an urgency about learning how to make money online.  As I'm sure many of you have realized, there's no "quick fix" to doing this, but I believe that if you work hard, and keep at it, soon, things will start to work in your favor.

Remember: "Success" only comes before "work" in the dictionary!

With that in mind, today I'd like to share a money generating tip that is definitely good as a long-term strategy.  I think you should consider Writing for Examiner.com as a local-based expert in your niche.

Working with Examiner.com provides a great avenue to market yourself online in two ways.  The first is through Writing for Examiner.com as a location-based Expert, like the “Nashville Scrapbooking Examiner”.  The great thing about Examiner.com, is if they don't have a "Nashville Scrapbooking Examiner", you can submit an application to become one!   Or, if they already have one, you can submit an application for your own suggested Examiner column, for instance "Nashville Scrapbooking Home Business Examiner".  The site pays about a penny per click for article views, so the real value in writing for Examiner.com is becoming a "subject-matter expert" on your topic, and being found more readily in search engine when someone searches for your name or your topic.

Before I started blogging and podcasting, my Examiner.com results were the most prominent things you could find about me on the internet.  I've even had people contact me by finding me through Examiner.com search results to ask me various questions based on the content I've written.  This is something to think about if you are looking to get the most out of your online marketing experience and build your online reputation.  It's a bit time-intensive, but it can have a great payoff!

Another great thing about Examiner.com is that you can re-publish content that you own.  “Re-branding” it for the Examiner.com audience is best to insure that your content stays relevant and keeps readers coming back.  And if you are currently blogging, this provides you with another avenue to get more buzz about what you're doing.

The second way that you can market yourself as an online marketer is to Sponsor an Examiner.com Writer because it is a great use of targeted online marketing.  Say for example you own a local crafts store and you choose to sponsor the "Nashville Scrapbooking Examiner" (if there is one), well you can pay $29 or $39 (depending on the city), and you'll get one of the sponsored links that appears beside their articles.  One of the reasons I'd recommend this as a paid advertising effort is that you'll know that people who are visiting a Nashville-based article are more than likely in the area, and that's a "warm lead" since they're already reading content related to your area, so the ad being positioned right there is capitalizing on their interest.

So, if you're interested in signing up as an Examiner.com writer, you can click this application link, or contact me personally if you’d like to learn more about my experience writing for Examiner.com before filling out an application.


Don't forget to check out the YouTube videos that have been uploaded to my Youtube Channel: YouTube.com/BootstrappingWithout Leave comments on this blog, or send me an email at “podcasts[@]bootstrappingwithoutboots.com”.  There’s also a Twitter account where you can reach out to me in 140 characters or less, and that’s withoutboots.  Finally, you can give me a call on my Google Voice Line at 615-59-BOOTS (that's 615-592-6687).  

Kindra Cotton, Small Business Survival Specialist
Serial Entrepreneur: Jill of All Trades and Master of Two (Information, Technology)

Bootstrapping Without Boots 2.0: The New Direction

Over the past few months, you may have noticed the series of posts, podcasts, and video tutorials that I’ve added to this blog, as well as on my Youtube channel.  I’ve had the opportunity to get some great feedback, and I’m glad to now be incorporating a lot of what my listeners and viewers have said.  The bottom line for a lot of people is that they want to learn how to make money.  I definitely understand that motive, so with that in mind, I’ve decided to make a few revisions to the direction that Bootstrapping Without Boots is headed.

First, realizing that time is a very limited resource, I have to incorporate a way that I can deliver great content to the Bootstrapping Without Boots Blog, and still keep tabs on my revenue-generating gigs, since maintaining this blog is primarily a “labor of love”.  To that end, I’ve decided to be more focused in my intent, and hopefully provide for you, a more useful series of blog posts, podcasts, and video tutorials that can help you make money at whatever it is you’re trying to do in your business.

So, over the next few weeks I’m going to be taking you through the “Bootstrapping Without Boots” curriculum I’ve designed.  It’s chopped up into multiple sections, but over the course of time, we’ll talk about websites and blogs, I’ll show you how to create a self-hosted WordPress Blog (which will also happen to coincide with the change from this blog from Blogger to WordPress), and I’ll also be delving into lots of other topics on how to make money online, how to save money by spending less and finding as many free and reduced cost resources out there, as well as how you can create and enhance your web presence through search engine optimization (SEO) and/or pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.

I’m really looking forward to the new direction, and I hope that having more structure will help you follow along and hopefully learn and grow as I learn and grow through this blog.

By the way, since we’re not spending any money this week, nothing is being subtracted from our remaining balance of $353.34.

Don't forget to check out the YouTube videos that have been uploaded to my Youtube Channel: YouTube.com/BootstrappingWithout

Leave comments on this blog, or send me an email at “podcasts[@]bootstrappingwithoutboots.com”. 

There’s also a Twitter account where you can reach out to me in 140 characters or less, and that’s withoutboots.  Finally, you can give me a call on my Google Voice Line at 615-59-BOOTS (that's 615-592-6687).
 
Kindra Cotton, Small Business Survival Specialist  
Serial Entrepreneur: Jill of All Trades and Master of Two (Information, Technology) 
Click below to listen to the podcast:

Don't Fret: Bootstrapping Without Boots Will Be Back Soon!

I'm using your feedback to construct a better Bootstrapping Without Boots Blog, and soon I'll be unveiling the new direction that the blog is going in, and how I'll be working hard to deliver the content that can get you afloat while in survival mode, and hopefully deliver you to business prosperity.

In the meantime, I'd like to show you my commitment to Bootstrapping Without Boots by displaying a recent picture from a snowfall that has hit my local area (LOL):

Yes, that's commitment! 

By the way, since we’re not spending any money this week, nothing is being subtracted from our remaining balance of $353.34.

Don't forget to check out the YouTube videos that have been uploaded to my Youtube Channel: YouTube.com/BootstrappingWithout

Leave comments on this blog, or send me an email at “podcasts[@]bootstrappingwithoutboots.com”.  There’s also a Twitter account where you can reach out to me in 140 characters or less, and that’s withoutboots. 

Finally, you can give me a call on my Google Voice Line at 615-59-BOOTS (that's 615-592-6687).

Kindra Cotton, Small Business Survival Specialist  
Serial Entrepreneur: Jill of All Trades and Master of Two (Information, Technology)

Cash Parking with GoDaddy: A Review

If you recall, a few weeks ago, I decided to do an experiment with Cash Parking with GoDaddy.




The video above is my review of Cash Parking, and for the most part I found that it wasn't the right product for me because my domain names aren't in high demand, nor are they names that people would commonly search for nor misspell.  For this reason, I'd think that Cash Parking could be a great alternative for someone that's looking to capitalize on the misspellings of popular domain names that might be available (e.g. Goggle.com - though that's already taken. LOL).

For the $3.99/month fee that Cash Parking costs at the 60% Revenue Generating level, I'm technically about having earned $4.98 over the past month, but I won't add that balance to our outstanding balance, because the experiment itself is slightly fudged given the mishap that caused me to have to extend it another month.

Overall, I think the success of Cash Parking with GoDaddy will ultimately depend on the domains you have, and your mechanism for leading people to them.  It was my experience that the Cash Parking Service merely placed relevant ads based on your domain name and the keywords you select, but the major issue is people actually getting to the site and finding the advertising useful enough to click on it.

By the way, just as a note, don't think you can sign up for GoDaddy Cash Parking then click your own Cash Parking links, because they have mechanisms in place for tracking these things and that could get your account shutdown and you'd forfeit whatever cash you've made. 

Since we’re not spending any money this week, nothing is being subtracted from our remaining balance of $353.34. Don't forget to check out the YouTube videos that have been uploaded to my Youtube Channel: YouTube.com/BootstrappingWithout

Leave comments on this blog, or send me an email at “podcasts[@]bootstrappingwithoutboots.com”.  There’s also a Twitter account where you can reach out to me in 140 characters or less, and that’s withoutboots.   Finally, you can give me a call on my Google Voice Line at 615-59-BOOTS (that's 615-592-6687).
 
Kindra Cotton, Small Business Survival Specialist  
Serial Entrepreneur: Jill of All Trades and Master of Two (Information, Technology)