You may already be familiar with some of the paid reviews that I write at John Chow dot Com, but reviews on that site come in at a rather pricey $500. Not everyone has an advertising budget that size. If you’re looking to get the same quality feedback from an expert reviewer, as well as a good level of exposure, then you’ll want to get in on this deal while it still lasts.

Earlier this month, I proclaimed that I would be offering half price reviews until the end of June. The regular price for a sponsored review on Beyond the Rhetoric is $70. This guarantees you 500 words and a series of screenshots/images. Reviews are available both for websites (including blogs, advertising networks, and online services) and for physical products. In effect, you can get an exceptional review for just $35.

The Sale Ends Today

To get a review for $35, you will need to respond before midnight tonight. Paypal the funds to michael -at- michaelkwan -dot- com and be sure to include brief information about what you would like to have covered in the review.

To get a sense of what you should expect, check out this review of Obzokee.com.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s What’s Up Wednesdays post, there is very little in terms of formal training and education when it comes to the business of freelance writing. This applies to the phenomenon of working at home in general and the experience can be terribly confusing for someone looking to get their feet wet. Thankfully, there are people out there who have been there, done that, and want to share their knowledge with you.

The first person to take advantage of my half price review special (which runs until the end of this month) is Chris De La Rosa. He runs Obzokee.com, a blog that is meant to provide “a work from home truth.”

What is Obzokee?

According to the about page, Obzokee “is a word traditionally used in Trinidad & Tobago when something is awkward in appearance, anything bent or twisted out of shape.” As you know, the entire work from home industry is a pretty jumbled mess, filled with scams and charlatans. There are also some fantastic opportunities out there as well. Obzokee is a blog that demystifies the industry, helping you to “secure a work from home, contract, freelance or telecommute job.” Along the way, you may learn a thing or two about earning passive income too.

The overall design of this work from home blog is quite pleasing to the eye. The gentle blues and oranges are quite soothing. Navigation seems straight-forward enough, but I do find it strange that there are two sets of navigation links near the top of the page. I would recommend trimming the fat and integrating the two sets of links into a single navigation bar. The Twitter link could be pushed to the sidebar, for example. I’d also recommend getting a more unique header image, because I recognize the two pictures involved as stock photography.

Reading About Working From Home

I appreciate the personal touch that Chris has taken with Obzokee. All the posts are written from a personal perspective and it’s not uncommon for him to mention his family in a post. The about page gives a bit of a personal history as well, though I find it strange that with this much intimacy, not a single picture of Chris can be found anywhere on the site. Completing the personal touch with a photo on the About page can go a long way.

In terms of content, Obzokee covers just about anything that you’d want to know about finding jobs that you can do from the comfort of your home, as well as all the related administrative and customer service-related tasks that come along with the territory. Some posts that caught my eye are:

• Pray that your better-half gets a benefit package at work
• Bite off more than you can chew, then chew it
• Your desk was not designed to be an eating place
• How to stand out from your peers and stay employed longer

Those are all from the month of June. Obzokee has an archive that dates back to July 2006 and Chris De La Rosa maintains a posting schedule of about one article every day or two. If you want to get in on the action, Chris also invites you to write for him too.

A Few More Suggestions

Chris has a pretty good thing going for him with Obzokee. As gas prices continue to soar and more people seek greater independence, there is going to be a greater demand for information about working from home. Whether you’re looking for help designing a home office or ensuring that your virtual assistant stays happy, Chris is there to guide you every step of the way.

As I mentioned earlier, the overall design of Obzokee is reasonably pleasing to the eye, but it is getting a little cluttered. Chris is not shy about advertising, but the banners are not overly intrusive. I would like to see a streamlining of the navigational links, however, especially since he’s even got a link to a couple of external sites in there.

Furthermore, I would like to see a simpler archives page, because it’s not exactly usable as it stands. Something closer to my archives would be more suitable.

Don’t let the oddball name throw you off, because Obzokee looks to be a good resource for people who want to work from home. Be sure to subscribe to the feed so you don’t miss a thing.

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed a tweet that I sent out a couple of days ago. Most of the time, my Twitter activity is used to promote Beyond the Rhetoric and talk about things that don’t warrant a full blog post. I also use Twitter to get in contact with my readers on a more casual basis. Networking is important both for bloggers and freelance entrepreneurs, you know.

For those of you with a keen eye, you would have noticed the tweet in question wherein I offer a significant discount on advertising through Beyond the Rhetoric. You can probably guess what the discount is based on the title of this post.

Save 50% Off All Reviews Until End of June

The regular price for a paid review on this blog is $70. This includes a minimum 500-word article and will feature multiple screenshots and/or images of your product. Although website and online service reviews are probably the easiest, I also review physical products as well. You just have to ship them to me.

Valid until 11:59pm PST on June 30, 2008, you are able to get one of these killer reviews for 50% off, effectively dropping the price down to just $35. To order a review, simply send the funds via PayPal (along with information regarding the subject of the review) to michael -at- michaelkwan -dot- com.

Save An Extra Five Bucks

As if getting a review for half price wasn’t enough, you can save an additional five dollars if you write a post about this promotion on your own blog. Just be sure to link back either to this post or to the homepage in your post.

Remember, this 50% off sale only lasts until the end of the month. Send the funds via PayPal to michael -at- michaelkwan -dot- com before June 30th to take advantage of this discount!

Even though we have all these modern conveniences that are supposed to save us time, many of us face the challenge of not enough hours in the day syndrome. In an effort to try and accomplish everything that we possibly can, we may enlist strategies like waking up earlier or multitasking, but in the end, it can still be incredibly difficult to keep your focus all day long. It can be pretty exhausting.

Your brain is like any other muscle. It needs nourishment and exercise. To keep healthy, you may take multivitamins and go to the gym on the regular basis, but the old noggin deserves the same amenities, does it not? You give your brain a workout by running a blog, coming up with creative posts each day to share with the rest of the blogosphere. You can exercise that brain by watching Jeopardy! and seeing how well you’d be able to compete against the contestants. But what about the nourishment side of things?

The herbal supplement and natural remedy industry is huge. Even if you wanted to give some these supplements a try, they can be quite pricey. So, I came across this offer for a free trial. They say that Procera is supposed to “eliminate brain fog, mental fatigue and forgetfullness.” I can’t speak for its effectiveness, but considering that it’s a free trial, you don’t really have that much to lose. It’s said to be a “clinically-tested safe and effective natural daily supplement.”

Procera is probably more effective than using caffeine to find clarity. I find that when I load up on coffee or soda pop, I just get jittery. The natural supplement route is probably a little more stable.

The free trial provides you with enough Procera for 14 days. The only cost to you is the $9.95 in shipping and handling. The offer is only open to the United States and Canada, so international Beyond the Rhetoric readers are a little out of luck.

CLICK HERE FOR A FREE TRIAL OF PROCERA

No, this post has nothing to do with the unforgettable Seinfeld episode. Instead, I’m taking a look at another way that you can earn a living online. Beyond the Rhetoric tends to focus on blogging and freelance writing, but there are several other strategies that you can take to make money online. If you’ve ever wanted to be your own boss, but you could never convince yourself to invest a huge amount of capital, an online business might be the way to go.

Some people try arbitrage and others may attempt to cash in on affiliate marketing, but have you ever considered running your own domain registration and web hosting company? The Domain59 reseller program can get you started with a fairly minimal investment.

Wanna Be a Dot Com Mogul?

Ah, the life of a dot com mogul. You can work when you to, where you want to. That’s the kind of lifestyle that could be waiting for you when it comes to running an online business. As blogging and website ownership become more popular (and affordable), more people are going to want a website of their own. The two necessary components for this are domain registration and web hosting.

The reseller program offered by Domain59 essentially puts you in charge of a website that sells these two crucial elements. The basic reseller plan, which I will further differentiate from the pro reseller plan in a second, costs sixty bucks a year. Depending on where you go, this can actually be less than how much you are already paying for basic hosting for your personal blog. In this way, reselling domains and web hosting is very approachable. The best part is that it can be mostly passive income.

Getting Down with GoDaddy

If you think that the Domain59 system looks familiar, you’re absolutely right. That’s because it is really just the GoDaddy reseller program. I think that they should have done something to further differentiate themselves, perhaps with some better branding. As it stands, Domain59 seems pretty generic.

Domain59 resellers are offering customers the exact same products as GoDaddy. The keys to your potential success with Domain59, then, are getting the traffic and setting your prices appropriately. Set them too low and you’ll make minimum profit. Set them too high and you won’t get any customers. Just like Goldilocks and her porridge, prices have just be juuuuust right.

These affordable domain registration prices hit the sweet spot quite well. A .com domain sells for just $7.49, whereas the same domain would cost $9.99 through GoDaddy. The reseller nets a profit of just under a dollar with that single purchase.

Basic vs. Pro

There are two reseller plans available. In terms of features and what you are able to sell, there does not appear to be any difference between the two other than the extra $100 you have to fork out each year.

Both come with a pre-built, fully customizable web site that is hosted on their own data center. Both let you set your own prices and don’t require any deposits, advances, or revenue sharing. Both completely handle the billing and customer support on your behalf. Why, then, would someone be at all interested in a Pro Reseller plan?

The difference is that the buy rates for those with the basic reseller plan and those with the pro reseller plan are not the same. For example, the rate for hosting is $3.15 with the pro plan, whereas it is $3.35 with the basic plan. SSL certificates are $1.50 more with the basic plan than they are with the pro plan. This directly affects your profit margin. Whether you choose to go with the basic or the pro plan will depend on your level of volume. Shown here are the buy rates for the pro reseller plan compared with some competing reseller programs.

Make Money Online with Domain59

There are just as many ways to make money online as there are to make money offline. Working as a reseller of domain registrations, web hosting, SSL certificates, and other related products through Domain59 is one avenue that may be worth exploring, especially since your initial investment can be as low as just $59.99 for a year, including everything that you’ll need to get started. Heck, they even throw in some credit for use with Google AdWords and Microsoft adCenter (more credit with the pro plan).

Remember that impossible is nothing. If you set your mind to it, you can totally make a decent income online. Selling domain registrations and web hosting plans through the Domain59 reseller program might be worth a try if the professional blogging thing isn’t going so well.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE DOMAIN59 RESELLER PROGRAM

There are many myths about freelance writing and one of the biggest ones is that you cannot earn a livable income doing it. That’s simply untrue. If you’re willing to work hard and put in the hours, you can totally make a living as a freelance writer. In fact, according to David Drake and his 6-Figure Freelancer e-book, you can make over $100,000 a year doing it from the comfort of your home.

Before I continue with this paid review, let’s have a look at a brief quote from the book.

An average writer on websites such as Guru.com and Elance.com charges between $15 and $35 per article. These articles take about an hour each to write. How many can you write each day? Even with 4 hours of work, you can cross the $36,000 per year barrier.

Let’s do a little math. Even if we assume the higher end of this pay structure, that would require 2,857 articles a year. If you work 250 days a year (5 days x 50 weeks), that works out to 11.43 articles a day. If each of these take an hour… well, you can do the math. Naturally, you’re going to want some higher paying gigs if you hope to become a six-figure freelancer. That, or you’ll be working 12 hour days, every day.

Site Improvements

I have three gripes about 6figurefreelancer.com, the website where you go to purchase the e-book. First, every visitor is immediately struck by a pop-up ad trying to sell a free first lesson. Ugh. Can you catch the punctuation error in the headline? How about the strange capitalization throughout the marketing copy?

The claim on the front page is a little misleading. It reads “I’ll reveal quick-n-easy tactics that generate an online 6-figure income… guaranteed!” Well, it’s not guaranteed at all. The disclaimer states that “there is no guarantee that you will earn any money using the techniques and ideas in these materials.” I realize that this sounds obvious enough, but I’d avoid using the word “guarantee” on the sales page.

Although 6-Figure Freelancer is said to be authored by David Drake, you come across something a little perplexing on the contact form. The email address is for someone named “jatindhillon” and it’s a gmail account. Wouldn’t it be better to have a contact email reading daviddrake@6figurefreelancer.com?

Valuable Tips For Would-Be Freelancers

6-Figure Freelancer is an 88 page e-book, broken down into 12 chapters. It starts out asking whether a 6-figure income is even possible with freelance writing, and ends with “how to really make a 6-figure income.” In between, David Drake makes mention of why you need a personal website, he describes the type of work you can expect, and he takes a look at freelance exchange websites.

One of the claims that he makes is that if you don’t need to be a great writer to make money as a freelance writer: “To be a good online content writer you only need to write in a basic conversational tone… like you talk.” That’s partly true, but poor writing skills will only get you so far and there’s no way that you’re netting any lucrative gigs with below average skills.

Some of the better tips that I encountered in the e-book are:

• Look for lucrative writing opportunities and become an expert. There are many areas in writing that pay several times more than the commonly found opportunities.
• The future of freelance writing is on the Internet and in company websites.
• Your income would be dependent on how much you can write. The day you leave it, your income will tank.
• Rehashing is taking your past work and modifying it to suit the needs of a particular buyer. It lets you finish work assignments at half the time required.
• Do you know where the real money is in freelance writing? It’s not in getting as many new clients as possible. It’s getting as many repeat clients as possible.

I found that much of the content in 6-Figure Freelancer focuses on freelance writing websites like Elance and Guru. This is only the beginning. From there, you will want to expand to having your own freelance writing business. David Drake spends the last third of the e-book talking about this.

The Single Greatest Piece of Advice

…in this e-book can be summed up in five words: “Treat it as a business.” Anyone who treats freelance writing as a hobby or a means to get “a little cash on the side” will never enjoy true success in this industry. I take my work as a freelance writer seriously and if you want to make a livable income from it, so should you.

A six-figure income as a freelance writer is totally feasible. Just don’t expect it to fall in lap. Reading 6 Figure Freelancer is a good start too. It sells for $37.