Happy New Year!

There are less than 24 hours until 2011 is here. Do you have a New Year’s Resolution?

I wanted to do something a little different to say goodbye to 2010, so I thought I’d do something similar to my monthly blog post roundups. Instead, though, I’m going to include the best of the best of my 2010 posts.

I got this idea from Copyblogger, and I thought that it was an excellent idea to bring 2010 to a close.

2010 has been a very exciting year for ReplaceYourSalary, and I couldn’t have done it without all of you. For that, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I mean it. I’m honored to have such a great community of readers here who support me in my endeavor. If it wasn’t for you, I don’t know if this blog would still exist.

I’ll warn you now, there’s quite a few posts. I was going to limit them to like 10 or so, but I didn’t think that would be fair. Afterall, it’s supposed to be the best of the best here, and I didn’t want to leave anything out.

Check them out and share them with anyone you think could benefit from reading them. And, at the end I have a special opportunity for you, so make sure to scroll down when you’re done.

Best Posts of 2010

5 Things You MUST Do To Make Money Online

Affiliate Marketing is the New Job on the Market

30 Ways to Get Free Website Traffic In Minutes

Proven Strategies to Increase Website Traffic and Generate Sales

How I Get Backlinks to My Blog Posts Resulting in Sales

A Complete Step-By-Step Guide to Setup a Money Making Website

Why I Chose Affiliate Marketing and Why You Should Too

5 Things to Consider Before Publishing a Guest Post on Your Blog

Don’t Make The Same Stupid Mistake I Made… Seriously!

New Blog Theme – I’m Using the FlexSqueeze WordPress Theme

What a Man, a Dog and a Leash Have to do with Internet Marketing

AshMax – The Perfect Work From Home Opportunity?

What are Backlinks, and Why Do I Need Them?

How to Properly Use Backlinks to Increase Search Engine Rankings

5 Link Building Myths EXPOSED

Q&A: Getting Traffic to Your Website

How To Find a Niche Market and Make Money Online

Q&A: Building Links to Your Website

Q&A: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Site Build It Review – Don’t Build a Website Before You Read This

Are You Marketing Your Blog on Facebook?

My Interview on The Lynn Johnson Motivational Radio Show

How to Choose a Proper Domain Name when Building Niche Sites

5 Core Components of a Website

Make Your Contribution

Do you have your own best of the best posts you’d like to share?

I want you to post them below by leaving a comment. I’ll allow up to 3 posts per person. It can either be your own posts or posts from a blog you read. Doesn’t matter… just make sure they’re awesome!

AND…

Please don’t abuse the privilege.

Okay, let me have ‘em…

April turned out to be a pretty good month. I received an increase in proofreading and re-writing work, which I was very happy about. Those are two things I thoroughly enjoy doing, apart from running this website and earning passive income from multiple sources.

Let’s get right into it…

Income from ReplaceYourSalary.com

• ClickBank: $107.77
• PayDotCom – $56.34
• HostGator – $50
• Angela’s Backlinks: $11.25
• Paul’s Backlinks: $8
• Yarie: $23.39
• Google Adsense: $21.11
• SFI: $16.23
• Project Payday: $3 (commissions earned from promoting the program, not actually using it)
• AdFish – $4.20

Total = $301.29

Income from Internet Marketing Services

It’s been a pleasure to be able to work for a highly successful internet marketer. I’m able to learn from and apply the same strategies to my online business, all of which I’ve blogged about here at one time or another.

Total = $160

Income from Proofreading/Re-writing/Editing Services

As I said previously, I’ve gotten a decent amount of freelancing work last month. It’s great to be able to provide a high quality and much needed service, and it’s been an honor serving my clients. You can learn more by visiting the link below.

• Proofreading – $76
• Re-writing – $20

Total = $96

Income from Re-writing Service via David Hurley’s PLR Article Service Membership

It has been an honor to be able to partner with David, a good online friend of mine, and provide the re-writing portion of his article membership. To learn more about his PLR article service, visit the link above.

Total = $57.50

Total online income from all sources…

$614.79

April turned out to be my best month yet since I began my online business venture.  If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s to never give up. Giving up is very easy to do, but sticking with it when things seem impossible is where the real character lies.

Well, it’s been one heck of a week so far, and that’s putting it very lightly.

It all started last night when I received an envelope in the mail. Now, the funny thing (at that moment, anyway) was that the envelope was addressed to the Legal Department of ReplaceYourSalary.com. What I thought was humorous about that is that this little ‘ole operation is ran by myself. You know, a one-man team.

I don’t have a Legal Department of some kind. I don’t even have a lawyer. Why should I? It’s not like I’ll ever get into any legal problems, right?

Oh wait, we haven’t gotten to the “funny” part yet. Let’s continue…

Curious as to what it could be, I opened the envelope which happened to contain about six pieces of paper. I notice it’s from Getty Images. Maybe you’ve heard of them? I vaguely knew the name… I just knew they have something to do with images or something… lol.

About five words into the first paragraph of the first piece of paper I read, my heart sank to the floor. Literally.

It turns out that one of the images I was using on my site violated the copyright, seeing as how they couldn’t determine that I owned a license to use the image for my own use.

Obviously this was a complete shock to me… and still is. The image in question had been in use on my site for at least two years. So you can imagine my surprise when, after all that time, I get a cease and desist notice.

BUT…

It doesn’t end at that. If you know anything about what I’m talking about, or maybe have experienced something similar, you’ll know that companies seek monetary damages for the time that the image was used without a proper license. There are many factors that determine the total amount they demand.

The settlement demand for the image I was using came to a whopping total of $450. That may not seem like a lot to some people, but to me it’s a big deal. I was just relieved in knowing it wasn’t much more than that… which is what I was expecting when my heart fell to the floor.

As I already mentioned, I had no idea that there was a copyright issue. I can’t even remember where I got the image from, but that’s irrelevant.

You see, you could get an image from some third party site which couldn’t give two craps about copyright law. You see the image and think it’s cool… and before you know it, it’s uploaded to your server and shown to the world.

The problem with this is that you’re still liable even if you didn’t knowingly violate the image owner’s copyright. A perfect example of my current situation. That was my stupid mistake.

Here’s what you can take from all of this…

Make 100% sure that any images you post on your site are royalty-free or don’t have any copyright associated with them. Because, as I found out the hard way, eventually someone will notice, and they will make you pay.

Now, I could have decided not to pay and contend the matter. But, I understand I was wrong and am willing to take responsibility for my actions, or in this case in-actions. Plus, there’s no possible way i could afford to fly out to Seattle, Washington for a court hearing.

Simply put, copyright infringement is a crime, whether you’re aware of the crime or not. I wasn’t aware that I had did anything wrong, but I’m still held liable, or rather, my “Company” is held liable.

This is a tough lesson for me. One I hope I never have to learn from again. With that said, I plan to go through my entire site, including my blog posts, and making certain that any images I have do not have a copyright associated with them. This will take a considerable amount of time, but I’d rather take the time than pay another $450, or more, for another unknowing infringement.

Just a warning that you may notice some images have disappeared from my site. Don’t be alarmed… it’s not your browser or anything like that. It means I found an image that I don’t feel comfortable displaying, and until I find a more appropriate image, it’ll be left blank.

All I can say at this point is… Lesson learned!

Okay… bad part’s over, right?

Hardly…

Sadly today my awesome car decided to crap out on me. And, I wasn’t being sarcastic when I said awesome. I love my car… it’s been reliable beyond belief for the past 5 years, and believe it or not, it’s 13 years old. You’re probably thinking, “well no wonder it crapped out. It’s freakin’ ancient!”

Well yes, it’s old. But, it’s a great car and has a ton of life yet. From what I can tell it’s just an electrical problem at this point. Nonetheless, it’s going to cost a good bit of money to fix. Not to mention the towing expense.

What can you learn from this? Hmm… that maybe cars get old and weak, just like us? Yes, we’ll go with that.

Seriously, though, don’t be stupid and make the same mistake I made. Double, triple check your image sources, and make sure you’re not infringing on anyone’s rights.

Also, if you’re feeling generous, or just feel plain bad for me, here’s a PayPal Donate button. Feel free to click it and enter any amount you would like to donate towards my stupidity. Your generosity will be very welcomed and unforgettable.

I hope you have a better week than mine is turning out to be.

On a bright note… tomorrow is my Birthday. Seriously!

No, no. Don’t rush to get me a Birthday present or anything like that. Simply click the PayPal button above so I can buy myself a $450 settlement demand with Getty Images and a new car. That will be more than sufficient.

December was a low month, which was to be expected with holiday shopping and such. At least that was my experience.

However, I was pleased to meet my Alexa Ranking goal of 250,000, which I surpassed. And, I’m on path to reach my new goal of 200,000 for the end of this month.

Here’s my income from last month for my ReplaceYourSalary.com site:

• ClickBank: $63.71
• Angela’s Backlinks: $11.25
• Paul’s Backlinks: $4
• Yarie: $37.25
• Google Adsense: $18.78
• SFI: $6.03
• Free Traffic System: $10
• Project Payday: $1.50 (commissions earned from promoting the program, not actually using it)
• Responsive Data: $4.50
• MaxBounty: $3.18

Traffic to my site has been increasing thanks to my marketing efforts. There is still a lot more I need to do and have already planned out. It’s just a matter of implementing the strategies now.

My site is still on the 2nd and 3rd page of Google search results pages for my two main keyword phrases. They’re both competitive, so it’ll take a little extra work to reach the first page. Getting more backlinks will help me achieve that.

Another bright note is that the Google Page Rank for this Work From Home Blog has increased to a PR 3. This is due to heavy link building the past couple of months.

That’s all for now. I expect big things to happen in 2010!

2009 was a great year as I started seeing momentum with my online business. I learned a lot about what I need to do, and also about what I don’t want to do. Everything is a learning experience that I can take with me and improve upon.

Now that we’re a full week into 2010, I’m starting to plan how I’m going to build up my online business to reach even greater heights. Planning and evaluation is an important process no matter what kind business you’re in. I need to evaluate the areas where I can improve, and then plan how I’m going to do so.

Along with planning, this is the time to set goals that you want to accomplish. The goals should be realistic and achievable. Don’t set them too high, but at the same time you don’t want to set them too low as you’ll only be cheating yourself.

When it comes to making money online, many prefer building multiple niche sites to earn income from. This is a great avenue to go down and may be easier than building just one authority site.

However, I personally want to focus my time on building ReplaceYourSalary.com as an authority site and blog. That has always been my intention from the start, and right now I don’t see that changing.

Eventually, I may pan out and start diversifying my efforts into some smaller niches, but that won’t happen until I have met my goals for this site.

I’m slowly getting there, but I have a long way to go before I reach the amount of growth and income I expect to get from this site. The potential is and always has been there. 2009 was very evident of that.

My goal for 2010 is to have systems in place that are going to help me reach my desired income. Systems can be anything from having the right people for the job, to having the right processes in place.

This means I’m going to be outsourcing a good majority of work this year in regards to marketing my website. This I feel is the only way I’m going to be able to be most productive and achieve the goals I have set for myself. I’ll still be doing a good portion myself, but there are some areas I’d rather leave to someone else.

There are also new processes I have learned and will implement this year that should dramatically boost my site and earnings. I’ll mainly be focusing on Web 2.0 sites and article marketing. This combination has proven to be effective, and I need to start utilizing this marketing strategy.

Another area I need to do more with is video marketing. I hadn’t done much on YouTube last year, and I want to change that this year. Video is an incredible medium with so much potential. I want to really grow my OnlineWealth channel up and get more exposure with my current videos and also future videos.

Specific goals I have set for this year are:

1. At least $1,000/month income
2. Blog minimum of 4 posts a week
3. Alexa Rank – 100,000 or less

These are the main areas I’ll be focusing on this year. Like most people, time is my biggest concern. This is why I’ll be outsourcing some work so that I can focus on other areas of my online business. If you look at all of the successful internet marketers and online business owners, every single one of them outsources. It’s time for me to follow that successful pattern.

What do you plan to accomplish this year? What are some goals you have for yourself personally or for your business? Share them in the comments below…