A member asked me recently:

"What kind of projects are you working on right now? In other words, what do you think is the 'next big thing' on the Internet?"

I don't mind revealing the projects I'm working on... but obviously some 'details' are left out until they are finalized.

Also, I don't have a 'crystal ball' - but since I live, eat and breath what happens online I do have a pretty good feel for where trends are headed.

But, I thought you might be interested in my answer to this subscriber's question so I'm going to repeat it below for you.

Ok? Here goes:

Projects I'm currently investing time, energy and money on:

Blogs:: Blogs fascinate me. Are they what the Internet was supposed to be: A personal publishing machine/network? I don't know, but they are interesting. Allan Says started a blog at http://www.secretwisdom.com and Jason Cain has produced an excellent ebook on making money with blogging and blogs at, http://www.webfindz.com/goldblog.html

(BTW- Jim Nech, a nice guy and InfoProductLab member has a testimonial on Jason's sales page. Take time to visit Jim's site- http://affiliate-facts.com and get his free report :)

The question I'm working on: Is there MONEY to be made in 'blogging'... from what I've seen so far, there is, BUT you need to have an extremely tight focus and without giving away too many of the secrets Jason reveals in http://www.webfindz.com/goldblog.html there are many ways to profit - many that I never would have thought of.

Another resource you should check out is Dr. Mani Sivasubramanian's BlogProfits : "33 Quick Tips To Make Money From Your Blog". I highly recommend both resources.

My project and my own interest is in creating a blog for increasing my publishing profits as well as producing a report on the subject of making* mon*ey with blogs. My brother is 'blog crazy' and we had a long discussion about it over the weekend.

I'm almost ready to take the plunge myself for one reason: The directories that list blogs are incredibly EASY to get into at this point. There's even a 'search engine' that does nothing but 'index' blogs and so the chances of getting found are very, very good. What that means is that if you have a niche 'focus' for your blog you could be getting traffic to it in as little as a day or two! How easy was it to get indexed by Google in 1996-1998?? - pretty easy. That's how it is now with getting your blog indexed... if you start now - 12 months from now, it may be too late.

Another reason to blog: People are 'crazy' over reading blogs. I forgot now where I read this but it said: there are more blog readers than there are blogs!

In addition to the above: I firmly believe that 'email' as a form of marketing may be permanently harmed by spam, spam filters and ISP's who are blocking a lot of legitimate email that they incorrectly identify as spam.

Most blogging software now allows you to automatically notify your readers when a new post was created using xml... this may be the only why to market effectively on the Internet in the future. Finding a business model using blogging is my #1 project right now.

Website Traffic:: Finding the 'holy grail' of the Internet-focused, targeted traffic! I've tried everything you can think of and my traffic has steadily grown over the years, but it has not been due to 'tricks' or many of the traffic 'gadgets' I've seen being sold on the Internet.

My basic traffic methods are pretty simple and boring: Word of mouth, being visible on major discussion boards and trying to be helpful to everyone who emails me with a question.

My own SEO methods are almost non-existant. I decided a long time ago I would not chase the search engines because they constantly change the rules of the game. But... I am trying out something that is very, very sexy... it may be exactly the 'holy grail' of traffic I've been looking for, http://www.marketingcheats.com/te.html

I'm testing the program now and I have a few ideas how it could be used much more effectively. One test I'm conducting is to use this program to create feeder sites to my own sites... another is to generate high quality, targeted reciprocal link sites that DO get indexed by Google. Please note: This is NOT a program for novices. If you don't know anything about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques, do some reading up first: http://www.marketingcheats.com/te.html

eBay :: A centralized market with millions of registered users! I got my start on the Internet selling on ebaY. First I sold rare books, then I sold entire websites...

The sale of 'websites' on ebay has hit an all-time low. At one time I could have sold an orginal developed (not a template) site for $500-$1,000. Although they took a long time to make, a sale is a sale... I couldn't get those kinds of prices anymore.

Where are the hot markets on ebay now? There are actually a lot of them, but not one's I'm interetsed in pursuing. ebaY is a very tough market for information publishers. Ebooks are selling for peanuts. Entire websites are selling for $20!

I still use it for generating leads, which is probably the best way to use ebaY right now for info-publishers, but another InfoLab member has found a very interesting way to use ebaY (among other lead generating systems) to create a dynamic viral backend money making system that made him a 'extra' $46,538 last year, http://www.strongmarket.com/viral.html

I think this is VERY smart... use ebay for lead generation and create multiple backend sales.

My ebaY 'project' (if you can call it that) for is to create 'keyword' rich listings that get found by the 'right' prospects who then bid on simple CD-rom or DVD products I create. Nothing fancy, just solid products with a niche focus.