Blog Archives Archives • The Dumb Passive Income Blog

#FUGDPR – I’m Blocking EU Visitors (It’s Just Easier)

June 30, 2018June 30, 2018 by Matthew Allen

Disclaimer: Nothing on this page should be considered legal advice. This is just one dumb guy’s best attempt at understanding the complexity of the new GDPR rules and why he is blocking EU visitors to try to comply (or not).

I’ve already wasted FAR too much of my precious time trying to understand this ridiculousness. I’m kind of pissed and I want to know where I can send the bill to reimburse me for this wasted time. Since the European Union (EU) is threatening to fine websites that don’t comply – do you think I should send the bill to them?

Airbnb Passive Income (An Unconventional Method)

June 15, 2019June 7, 2018 by Matthew Allen

All too often, we come across content in the passive income sphere (more like a blob but that’s another matter) that is either all filler, or the classic regurgitated 5-minute-fix that you’ve heard too many times for your liking. This story about Airbnb passive income is by no means an article intended to bash proven methods – on the contrary, the composition of this post was undertaken to utilize what has worked in the past, but with a twist for those who either are not comfortable with the current models, or who are finding difficulty getting past the sometimes insurmountable barriers to entry that come along with them. Usually it goes something like this…

#FUGDPR – No Updates to my Privacy Policy

May 25, 2018 by Matthew Allen

Below is an exact copy & paste of the email that I sent out to all of my subscribers today…

Hi,

Just writing to let you know that I have NOT updated my Privacy Policy.

I think it’s really great that the entire world is bending over to comply with one new European law. What makes it even better – that the millions of small-time bloggers or website owners (myself included) are expected to try to make sense of the complexities of this new law and make our sites compliant – regardless of whether or not we live in the EU. This is just thrilling and fantastic! I love it!!

Keyword Golden Ratio and the KGR Rule of 63

January 5, 2021January 17, 2018 by Brad Vandenberg

It never ceases to amaze me how putting myself out there and simply interacting with others can lead to incredible things online. In this case, you’re about to read a phenomenal blog post, about the Keyword Golden Ratio, that came about as a direct result of me simply leaving a comment on another blog.

Last week, I commented on this niche site portfolio update written by Brad from Human Proof Designs. Not long after I commented, I received an email from Dom (the owner/founder of HPD) explaining that Brad was starting to answer my question about the Keyword Golden Ratio (KGR) in the comments when he realized that the answer could easily be an entire blog post. Since they’ve already covered KGR extensively on their blog – he asked if I would be willing to publish that blog post here.

I responded with an “absolutely!” And now you are in for a treat because Brad has written a stellar blog post that covers the Keyword Golden Ratio in great detail. The rest of this post is written by Brad…

Long Tail Pro Review

December 31, 2017 by Matthew Allen

Long Tail Pro – once hailed as the undisputed best keyword research tool – has certainly seen it’s ups and downs over the years. Long Tail Pro was originally created by Spencer Haws, from NichePursuits.com, back in 2011. He paid to have the software developed in order to relieve his own frustration with the amount of time it took him to find good keywords. In this Long Tail Pro Review – I’m going to cover every aspect of the tool, from its origin to the latest update and all of the features and everything in between.

Long Tail Pro evolved and went through several changes in its first few years. The most notable being the addition of the Keyword Competitiveness (KC) score – which is a keyword difficulty measurement. This was a revolutionary change that was pioneered by Spencer and Long Tail Pro and, at the time, was the only tool (that I know of) that had this type of feature.

Eventually, Spencer sold his Long Tail Pro business. It’s a fascinating story, really. You can read all about it in full detail on Spencer’s blog (linked below) or listen to the story in Spencer’s own words on Steve Chou’s podcast (also linked below)…

Tax Bill’s ‘Pass-Through’ Rule will Benefit Internet Entrepreneurs

December 21, 2019December 29, 2017 by Matthew Allen

Republican lawmakers and President Donald Trump claimed to have passed the biggest tax reform bill in over 30 years. President Trump signed it into law just before Christmas, 2017. Reporters, writers, experts, so-called journalists and ordinary folks like you and me have been analyzing the details and trying to figure out exactly how it will affect each of us.

I came across one interesting article on CNBC.com that shed some light on some specific ‘pass-through’ rule details. If you can get past the obvious anti-Trump bias and the apparent hatred towards wealthy business owners – the article actually highlights a few points that will benefit small business owners and internet entrepreneur’s, like myself.

Mortgage Crushing Challenge Update #3 – Breaking the $1,000/month Income Barrier

December 20, 2021July 23, 2017 by Matthew Allen

Welcome to my latest update for the 2017 Mortgage Crushing Challenge! In this update, I’ll be covering everything that happened throughout May and June pertaining to this particular niche website. I am greatly encouraged by the progress that the site has made – especially the June income numbers! I wasn’t able to personally work on the site during these 2 months as much as I would have liked. Moving into our new home throughout June put a bit of a damper on that. But my team continued to produce and publish content and I continued some paid traffic testing and the site broke the $1,000 income threshold for the month of June! Not bad for a site that didn’t even exist at the beginning of this year.

What is the Mortgage Crushing Challenge? It is a goal that I set for myself at the beginning of this year and the following statement explains it perfectly…

I am going to create one (brand new) passive income producing website that will cover my mortgage by December 2017!

The Story of Niche Wolf – Niche Ideas and Keyword Research

May 18, 2017May 18, 2017 by Matthew Allen

It all started in the Niche Site Project 3.0 Facebook group owned by Spencer Haws. I was browsing through one day, as I often do, and came across a post from a guy who was looking to sell his website. I usually ignore those posts because they’re usually people trying to offload their crappy niche websites. But this one was different.

This guy already had his site listed on Flippa and just posted a link to the Flippa listing, within the group, along with a brief description. I checked out the site and I was intrigued! Long story short… I ended up purchasing the site and I completely rebuilt it from the ground up. Keep reading for the longer version of the story…

The short version is that I purchased NicheWolf.com and turned it into my own service-based website with some really valuable information and products for sale. I put a LOT of time and effort into the entire deal… But then the entire story took a turn that I wasn’t planning on or expecting. Read to the end to see what happened…

Mortgage Crushing Challenge Update #2 – Validation with Paid Traffic Testing

May 12, 2017May 11, 2017 by Matthew Allen

Welcome to my latest update for the 2017 Mortgage Crushing Challenge! In this update, I’ll be covering everything that happened throughout February, March and April pertaining to this particular niche website. Much progress was made. A test (of sorts) was completed which further validated my niche. My optimism and excitement remain, as I’m still expecting massive success with this website.

What is the Mortgage Crushing Challenge? It is a goal that I set for myself at the beginning of this year and the following statement explains it perfectly…

I am going to create one (brand new) passive income producing website that will cover my mortgage by December 2017!

4 Ways to Get Long Tail Pro and Make it Pay for Itself (Updated)

March 15, 2021April 21, 2017 by Matthew Allen

Get Long Tail Pro - Make It Pay for Itself

When I finally made the decision the get Long Tail Pro way back in December of 2012 – I honestly had no idea how much this one piece of software would impact everything I do online. I knew that it would help me find more and better keywords right off the bat. But I didn’t know exactly how much it would positively affect my ability to actually make money online. I can say with confidence, that Long Tail Pro is the one tool that has made the biggest difference (by far), in my ability to get traffic to websites and actually earn money online.

Don’t get me wrong. There are lots of other tools that I love and use (and promote) that also make a big difference in everything I do online now. But Long Tail Pro is probably THE most important. Getting search engine traffic to websites 101 doesn’t get more basic than doing good and proper keyword research. And nothing makes keyword research faster and easier than Long Tail Pro. Allow me to explain…

Access my EXCLUSIVE DISCOUNT for Long Tail Pro – just click on any link that leads to Long Tail Pro or learn more by scrolling to the very bottom of this post

SEO PowerSuite Review

November 19, 2017April 5, 2017 by Matthew Allen

Recently, I’ve been playing around with different SEO Tools in order to maximize my efforts and help me obtain, monitor and maintain my rankings. One of the benefits of owning a ‘passive income’ blog like this – that talks a lot about SEO – is that companies typically reach out to me and want me to try their programs and potentially promote what they have to offer. I’ve been experimenting with SEO PowerSuite lately and I’m really impressed! Check out this short review/overview that I wrote about this awesome suit of tools…

SEO PowerSuite toolkit consists of 4 tools with their own separate functions that can be downloaded as one 4-pack:

Rank Tracker – keyword research + analysis and monitoring of global and local rankings.
WebSite Auditor – on-page SEO, technical site audit, and content optimization.
SEO SpyGlass – backlinks and link quality assessment.
LinkAssistant – link management and link building opportunities.

I’m going to show you a short overview of each tool…

The Pinterest Strategy Guide and Traffic Experiment Failure

April 5, 2017March 30, 2017 by Matthew Allen

Well – this one is a doozy. Here is yet another great example of why I call myself ‘dumb’! One more failure to add to my massive pile of internet marketing attempts that completely flopped. This one has to do with a ridiculous purchase I made for a Pinterest Strategy Guide and how I tried to use it to increase traffic to one of my niche websites. Epic fail!!

Who is dumb enough to pay $139 for a Pinterest Strategy Guide and has no plans to use it themselves? Me! That’s who. Like so many others, I got sucked in by reading about the massive success of somebody else and I thought I could make it work for myself. Well… things don’t always work out for me (or you) the way they work out for others. Here’s my story…

I am going to create one (brand new) passive income producing website that will cover my mortgage by December 2017!

I am going to create one (brand new) passive income producing website that will cover my mortgage by December 2017!

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