It’s Sunday…
Time for some LINK LOVE! :shock:

A slow week overall, I’m going to be back in action this week as the first official week of classes kicks up at Penn State University. Hey, this week wasn’t so bad though, just a lot of side projects that I will be letting you guys know about in future posts. I had a speculative domain bet placed that I will discuss once the niche websites are prepared, designed a website for a law firm and started doing some heavy article marketing for BullishBankers.com, my stock market website.

Before I get into the news and reviews, let’s take a look at what I felt were five solid articles to round out the week ending August 23rd, 2008!

Despite complaints from the overall community that there weren’t many good posts this week, all of these are top-notch articles that you should read. Affiliate Confession talks about how you may be overestimating the power of blog revenue. Click Consultants talks about the all-important 20/80 rule in marketing your blog. Garry Conn brings up a humorous and somewhat depressing issue of social media networks stealing away your search engine traffic. Net Strife talks about some methods in profiting off of outsourced WordPress themes and The Melvin Blog brings up how SponsoredReview.com has advertisers that will bite on anything… which actually encouraged me to add my blog to the listings to see if I get any bites! :razz:

Stock Market Update
Stocks fared pretty well this week all things considering. It seemed that there was nothing but bad news this entire weeks, especially surrounding the Financial companies (which were the biggest drag on the markets). What exactly comprises “bad news?” The major theme had to be Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) falling off a virtual cliff after a downgrade (finally) from Moody’s Investor Service five-notches lower to just above “junk” status.This put a big strain on the overall markets, but especially the Financials, and renewed fears of the continued credit crisis.

On top of Fannie and Freddie’s hard times, producer prices jumped to the highest rate of annual increase since 1981, housing starts in July dropped off a whopping 11%, geopolitical tensions were on the rise between the United States and Russia and the 4-week average for initial claims rose to 445,750 from 438,500.

Not all the news was bad, and shares of anything but financial stocks did fine as the Dow ended the week up 1.73% on Friday, down 0.3% on the week. The S&P 500 Index was down 2.4% on the week. Keep in mind though, that these include Financials… so really the overall market was flat. I seem to have gotten a great buying point on Chesapeake Energy at $44.98 a share… close to the lowest point since March. While oil tripped on Friday, it performed well for the week, and commodity markets as a whole were solid… locking in a nice gain there. I still am very bullish on the IT sector and Healthcare, both of which have weathered the storm.

Blogosphere Update
I was definitely in a rush this week ot get some work wrapped up before returning to school, but I did manage to have a look around the blogging world and pick up on some action. I was actually “challenged” by the owner of SiteFlipU.com, who claimed he could flip 5 blogs in 24 hours for $1,000. I really don’t know why he came at me like he did, as I still believe this is an impossible task and there is no way he actually did it all in 24 hours, but check it out because he will make money regardless. You know my buddy Joe did a spin video on the challenge, it’s a funny watch so check it out.

Nothing major to report, a few contests popped up here and there that I threw some money and stuff at to get some easy sponsorship deals… but nothing mind blowing. I am looking forward to seeing if SlyVisions can get anywhere close to his 250-to-1000 subscribers in 90 days goal. Hey, even if he fails at least we’ll finally see some more content out of that blog… which was essentialyl left for dead before. But go ahead and check it out and tell him Jim from TNF sent you. ;)

The Week In Focus
Having a look at what’s to come, I got my paid reviews out of the way finishing this week with a look at Triple.com’s affiliate program. I have a lot of posts planned, but some I really can’t publish until I have finished my other projects which the posts refer toward. I’m hoping for a productive week ahead, but as classes will be starting up this week, who really knows what is in store. Bottom line: this week may be bumpy, or it may not, but after this week it’ll be clear sailing.

I’m planning on putting out a great money making technique once again to keep you guys in the loop, and if I ever get up and stop lazing about I’ll be able to put together a fun contest for you guys to steal some quick prizes that will be worth your while. I have a couple of interesting projects in the pipeline, nearing completing a bit more every day, so once those are released I’ll have a lot more time to blog and help you guys out. As always, you can get personalized help by contacting me over email or IM for free.

Stay Bullish on the Net!
-The Net Fool

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