I started making money online sometime around 1996 I’m guessing, and before I ever came up with the name MoneyReign, I had a whole stream of free hosted sites and usernames I would use. When I first started to make a few bucks online, it was through AOL internet access. Whenever you made a new account with a free AOL disk, you’d have to make a new username. The first few years passed, as did many free AOL accounts (remember those free AOL disks!) as did many various usernames. None of the usernames really stuck, and the money wasn’t in serious amounts yet, so any checks coming in would just be made out to “Zac Johnson“. It wasn’t till I finally came up with the name “MoneyReign” that I would finally stick with my company name, eventually incorporate it (around 2000) and buy my first domain, moneyreign.com, in 1998.
Today I was doing some domain research and looking to pick up any nice domains I could find for sale, or that were about to expire. I then did a few data reports on a bunch of domains that I own. To my surprise, the one day I’m actually pulling some stats on my domains, I see that MoneyReign.com was registered 10 years ago TODAY! I remember how cool it was to finally have my own domain and finally get off the crappy AOL member pages and Geocities/Tripod sites. I also remember how we were all hostages to Network Solutions and their $70 domain registrations, and that $70 was so expensive!
Over the years, MoneyReign.com has been everything from a free stuff site, a stock site, an online book store and a portfolio/directory for my other sites. Recently it’s just been a placeholder site for my company name/site and a listing for this blog and contact info. I’m sure I have most of the versions all saved on my old computers in my basement. It’s so funny to see how things change over the years. (I should throw up one of the old school designs and see what people think! )
Setting up your web site and buying a domain is easy now a days and only takes a few bucks, but if your old school, you probably have some stories to tell! What are some of your oldest domains and how long did it take you to go from a free hosted web site, to your own domain?
Everyone already knows how awesome it is to work at Google. When I visited their headquarters there were bike racks, people running around and jogging, a volleyball area and much more. If you are ever in California and wanting to visit Google Headquarters, make sure you talk with someone at the company first, before visiting. I didn’t want to just show up at their offices out of the blue, so I sent in a feedback form through Google Adwords admin area asking about visiting their offices and if any tours or anything were available, and I received the following response.
While I was in San Francisco, CA for EliteRetreat, I already had my flight and hotel booked for a set amount of time. Once I heard that Google Headquarters was only about an hour away, I wanted to see what I could do about extedning my stay and visiting their headquarters. Instead of heading home Monday (as planned), I extended my hotel stay another night ($289), transferred my flight for a day later ($100 transfer fee per ticket) and rented a car to drive over to their offices ($100). I didn’t mind the additional costs of around $600 for the chance to visit Google, after all I’ve worked heavily with them over the years and always read about how great their company headquarters is.
Once Reena and I arrived at Google, we went to the visitor center and asked if they have any tours of if we could roam around and check out the location. The somewhat lifeless soul behind the desk said, “No, we are a closed campus. We don’t allow anything like that.”. I then asked if I could take a picture in front of their big Google sign in the visitor center… again she replied, “No, we don’t allow pictures here”.
Very frustrated and confused, I called Google Adwords support over the phone to see what the heck was going on. I was connected with someone at Google Adwords and went through the scenario with them and explained I was currently at their offices in California and was denied access. The representative I was talking to on the phone was located in the Boston Google offices, so she could not help. I also told her about the email from Google, telling me to visit their offices. She then put me on hold for a bit and back tracked that email response to Google support in India! (So basically the representative in India had no idea what she was saying). Lastly, she looked up my Adwords specialist linked to my account, and they had the day off… though I am sure that wouldn’t have changed anything anyway.
Before leaving Google, we decided to go to the main lobby and see if they could offer any light to the situation. Once again, almost as a lifeless soul, they answered with the same response. I noticed with both secretaries, once you stopped talking directly to the (and still standing at the desk), they would just go back to work and just ignore your existence… it was very odd, and disappointing. Even after I explained to them both I had done well over six figures with the company through Google Adsense and spent thousands upon thousands through Google Adwords, the response was still the same.
My “less than thrilled” picture at Google Headquarters.
In the end, we left Google with a sour taste in our mouths. I’ve heard about how people have had to sign disclaimers on how they can’t release any information when the visit the campus, but I wasn’t expecting such a cold response from everyone there, but mostly how badly I was miss informed by their Adwords support. If you are ever planning on visiting the Google Headquarters, make sure you have something in writing that is on staff that day, otherwise you might as well just be their competition.
It’s been a few days since I wrote my last blog post. I’ve been super busy in California over the past week, attending EliteRetreat and taking some time to visit the area for a few days after. The event was awesome and I can’t say enough about, I never wrote so many notes from one event before. Guest speakers Matt Mullenweg and Guy Kawasaki were both great. I’ll be making a few updates this week on the event in whole.
Today I spent time visiting Google and eBay headquarters in Mountain View and San Jose. I’ll also be writing more on this, this week.
Tomorrow I get my flight back to NJ and will get back to work again. Sure was nice to pretty much take a week off and only open my laptop up a few times over the past couple days. On the flight back I’ll probably write a new blog post or two for this and next week.
I’m getting everything ready and doing my last minute packing for San Francisco, CA, where I will be attending Elite Retreat this week. I will have plenty of posts over the next few days to cover the event, but first I would like to talk a bit about Twitter. I signed up to Twitter quite a while ago, but never really got into. I just started up again a couple days ago and I’m finding it really useful. Just last week I made a post on how I wanted to connect with my users through Facebook. The response has been awesome, and I will post the t-shirt winners later this week! Since the post I’ve added over 200 friends and once again came across a bunch of people in the past, that I had no idea read the blog… it’s also brought me a bunch of new contact and even some new business.
Back to Twitter… so everyone pretty much already knows what Twitter is, and a great amount of people are already using it. It’s like AIM on crack, but with a massive audience you can talk with all at the same time, or individually. It also comes with some great programs or addons you can use to better your Twitter experience. I’ve been using Twhirl and really enjoying. Another great resource is TwitterFeed, which updates your Twitter account with your latest blog posts.
As mentioned, I’ll be in California for the next few days, so I’ll be posting updates to Twitter throughout Elite Retreat and my adventures around the state. Stay up to date and network with me on Twitter!
Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net, recently made a post asking “Why Do You Blog?“. Not only did he ask the question… but he also wanted it in video format. I’ve wanted to do video for quite some time now, and I’m glad Darren made this post, because it finally pushed me to making my first actual blog post video. Instead of doing a regular video, I decided to have some fun with it and do something original! So here it is… Why I Blog!
I Blog to Be Different
A lot of internet marketers are blogging, but not as many are moving into video. Whether you are blogging, running an ad campaign or video blogging, creativity and being different is key. Being different not only helps you in succeed, but it also gets noticed. Don’t worry about what other people think. Do something crazy and push yourself outside of your comfort level!
I Blog to Get & Stay Motivated
It happens to all of us, sometimes you just feel unmotivated and want to step away from your business for a bit. Blogging is a great way to get away from it all. Sometimes your best writing happens when you are frustrated. Step back and review some news articles or talk to some friends on AIM, get an idea for a new blog post and get to it! Once you have your new post live and have read your readers the comments, you are now motivated again and ready to go! Not only are you motivating yourself, but your posts will also inspire your readers at times as well!
I Blog to Share Knowledge
I’ve been making money online for over 10 years, but I’m still learning new stuff every day. Being able to share my stories and experience from past to present, then having people comment on my posts with their ideas or advice is just awesome. No matter how big or small, we can all learn from blogging.
I Blog to Network
After attending BlogWorld and AffiliateSummit West, it was amazing to see the response from people who read the blog. I was even more amazed by how many people I already knew, but had no idea they were daily readers! Email is great, but being able to get more personable and read up on a fellow bloggers is much better. Blogging is a great networking tool.
I Blog for Name Recognition
This blog already has thousands of readers. The more popular a blog gets, the better name recognition and branding you have. Over time your name and brand power can be priceless. Are you working towards building your name or company branding?
And I Now Video Blog…
This was my first video blog. Why blog as Spiderman?! Why not… making money online and blogging is fun, make the most of it! Do something creative today, see what happens!
Thank you Darren for your recent video blog promotion. Not only is it a great idea, but it was the boost I needed to get started and put my first video blog post together. What did you think of my first video and would you like to see more? Am I crazy, funny, insane… or a marketing genius?
There are a lot of ways you can start making money online. One of the quickest and most profitable methods is through Pay Per Click marketing. Please read my "Super Affiliate's Guide to Pay Per Click Marketing" to see if it's right for you. I recommend using the following ad networks to run offers from.
"With great power comes great responsibility".... my Uncle Ben told me that. Haha, just kidding! I'm Zac Johnson and I've been making money online for over 10 years now. In short, I started making money online while I was in high school... but my passion for marketing and making money goes back way earlier than that. I created ZacJohnson.com to help motivate you to start making money online, and live the life the you always dreamed of. [Read my full bio...]
I started making money online sometime around 1996 I’m guessing, and before I ever came up with the name MoneyReign, I had a whole stream of free hosted sites and usernames I would use. When I first started to make a few bucks online, it was through AOL internet access. Whenever you made a new account with a free AOL disk, you’d have to make a new username. The first few years passed, as did many free AOL accounts (remember those free AOL disks!) as did many various usernames. None of the usernames really stuck, and the money wasn’t in serious amounts yet, so any checks coming in would just be made out to “Zac Johnson“. It wasn’t till I finally came up with the name “MoneyReign” that I would finally stick with my company name, eventually incorporate it (around 2000) and buy my first domain, moneyreign.com, in 1998.
Over the years, MoneyReign.com has been everything from a free stuff site, a stock site, an online book store and a portfolio/directory for my other sites. Recently it’s just been a placeholder site for my company name/site and a listing for this blog and contact info. I’m sure I have most of the versions all saved on my old computers in my basement. It’s so funny to see how things change over the years. (I should throw up one of the old school designs and see what people think! 
)
Back to Twitter… so everyone pretty much already knows what Twitter is, and a great amount of people are already using it. It’s like AIM on crack, but with a massive audience you can talk with all at the same time, or individually. It also comes with some great programs or addons you can use to better your Twitter experience. I’ve been using 
"With great power comes great responsibility".... my Uncle Ben told me that. Haha, just kidding! I'm Zac Johnson and I've been making money online for over 10 years now. In short, I started making money online while I was in high school... but my passion for marketing and making money goes back way earlier than that. I created ZacJohnson.com to help motivate you to start making money online, and live the life the you always dreamed of.