Have you ever stumbled, or even failed with a project or an enterprise in your business? It's a tough situation, I know. I have lived it first hand.

I know that we always suggest that you simply get up and try again when you fail. But that's a lot easier said than done. In fact, many businesses never recover from a failure, and at a personal level, as a business owner or operator, a failure can be devastating.

Even when we're talking about business or work, sometimes a failure can have serious consequences in our personal lives. But I bet you didn't know that a big source of the negativity that comes after a failure comes from within.

The cliché seems to be true: We are our own worst enemies.

As a reminder to you, and to myself, I made this video about how we tend to beat ourselves up when something goes wrong. Even worse than that, we tend to be tougher on ourselves when we are the ones that caused the failure. So take a moment to watch this and hopefully you can relate.

Maybe you've been through this already, and maybe you have some additional tips or advice; if so, let me know in the comments.

Apply for the 21 Step Training System: http://notagrouch.com/21steps
Attend a FREE live workshop to learn profitable Internet marketing near you: http://oglink.it/imfreedom

I've had my own share of failures, shortcomings and downright blunders. I would love to get some feedback on this post, I feel that I went a bit personal so I really want to know if it had any impact on you today.

The post Why Do We Fail and We Beat Ourselves up About it! appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

I know I said that I'm going into this challenge by myself. I didn't announce it to my groups, as of the writing of this blog post I haven't even told my VIP group about it. I'll be emailing them about it soon.

But that doesn't mean that you just get to sit back and watch and read only. I would like you to get something out of this challenge too, a large percentage of the videos and content I'll produce over the next 99 days will be to teach you and share with you tips, tricks, methods and techniques to help you make money.

So while I'm doing this challenge by myself, you have to do something for me, well, for you really. All I ask for now, is that you subscribe to my YouTube channel and to my VIP email list. This will help you not miss anything and also make sure that you get all of the tutorials, or discounts or insights that will make you more money, save you money or help you start a business.

If you have any questions you want me to answer in an upcoming blog post or video, please send them to me. To send me your questions, join the email list and reply to one of my emails and let me know you'd like me to answer a question.

By the way, did you notice my new introduction in the video? I just made that. I'd love to get your feedback on that as well.

The post Your Turn to do Something 100 Day Challenge, Day 2 appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

But this new challenge is important and from a practical point of view, it aligns well with the video challenge. The 22 Pushup challenge is about bringing awareness to the situation that many U.S. veterans encounter on a regular basis. Suicide.

The original challenge was to count 22 million pushups to raise awareness and buzz around this. The challenge was crafted by the folks at 22kill.com and while that number of pushups has been reached, there is more work to be done.

The situation is that at least, but likely more than 22 veterans are committing suicide each day. And there are different sources that report different numbers. CNN recently wrote this about the situation.

This article reports that in fact the 22 number is not exact. Not even close, the actual number is closer to 1 per day.

I know this is a grim topic, but whether the number is 22 or 2, it is too many. It is important to know that bringing light to this issue can help the situation. I believe in people and I know that veterans are strong, resilient and the article that explains the real number also has this at the end of it:

As veterans, we’re far more resilient than we’ve given ourselves credit for. If we do our job now, and extend a helping hand to our brothers and sisters over 50, we can decrease that suicide rate, and ensure our generation avoids despair in the future.

That's speaking to other veterans, but I feel like I can use some of my abilities to bring this issue to light. I think that can only help, so I took up the challenge.

Each day I complete the 22 pushups I'm doing a short video and sharing it on social media. This was my first video about it which also happens to be one of the 90 day videos.

The post The 22 Pushup Challenge appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

While this may seem like a lot of money to you, many people are happy to pay this and even more to get the right advice.

Why would someone pay so much just to talk to me, to go over ideas and to get some feedback on those ideas? Value, when you're looking to succeed, you need to change your mindset form price-driven, to value-driven.

Value, as I mention in that video is in the eye of the beholder. Once you understand that, you will be able to make certain breakthroughs in your online business because you will stop selling yourself short.

The post The 400 Dollar per Hour Rant appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

I talk about list building and how it is similar to dating. I also talk about the infamous "free, just pay shipping and handling" method.

List building is essential to any business, the tactics change over time, but the goal doesn't. You need a list and at least two segments, buyers and leads. You can always segment more beyond that and you should, but you need at least two main groups.

For the lead generation part I use two programs. But at the very basic level, you need just the second one.

#1 Optinmonster, because it integrates with WordPress beautifully. It creates intelligent lead generation boxes and helps you retain more traffic on your WordPress blog. Rumor has it that it will soon be platform agnostic so I highly recommend it. You can get Optinmonster here.

#2 LeadPages is the other app I use. This has entire websites that you can build as landing pages and they are some of the best out there. They are mobile friendly, easy to use, and will work with any website you already have or will host them for you in their blazing fast hosting service (included in the price).

They are the leaders in creating squeeze pages and I highly recommend them. You can check out Leadpages here.

#2.5 ClickFunnels. Since I first wrote this post, I've added ClickFunnels to my daily toolbox and I recommend it as well. This is a more robust platform than most other SAAS. You can create squeeze pages or landing pages, or entire funnels with A/B split testing plus they have Actionetics and Backpack. The closest to an "all-in-one" solution. Watch the webinar here.

And of course, as I have mentioned before, I use Aweber to maintain my list. Both Optinmonster and Leadpages connect with Aweber seamlessly to make my life easier. Aweber is available now with a totally free 30 day trial and you can check that out here in this link.

If you can't afford Optinmonster or Leadpages, you can still use Aweber on its own.

Aweber has built-in lead capture forms and you can even create simple squeeze pages with it. I just prefer to use better tools for that, but if you just need to start somewhere, start with Aweber for free.

The post Driving with Oscar – Episode 3 – List Building Tips appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

If you actually use the Google photos service, you can get autoawesomes done all the time not just at the end of the year.

The post The Year in Photos appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

When you start your empire online, there are very few technical skills that you will need, but when you hear "no tech skills needed" or no "skills required" there is always still some skill level that you need to start with. No tech skills needed really means it is very simple and easy to do.

If that wasn't clear enough, let me be more forward. Let’s be clear and honest with each other, you need at least some basic skills.

If you have ever sent an email out, or if you have ever filled out a form online, that’s about all the skills you’ll need to be able to start with an online business.

The rest you’ll learn as you go. Don’t get me wrong! By the time you start making some money, you’ll have some really good tech skills under your belt. These newfound skills are not needed to start, but you’ll develop them as you go, that’s for sure.

And once you learn a few tricks, you will be able to continually learn more and improve. This will happen naturally, but as I discuss on the Hype vs. Facts section, you should have a desire to also continue and improve.

Always push yourself to find the next thing to improve, or work on after you overcome a challenge.

But that’s not enough, Oscar! You say!.

You’ve heard this before, you’ve heard “no tech skills needed” and it wasn’t true. It turned out to be really complicated and I quit!, you're going to tell me.

The truth is that you will need some technical skills but they’re very simple to attain and very simple to use on a regular basis so you learn them forever.

If you can write an email, search for something in Google and fill out a form like you do when you want to buy something, or answer a questionnaire online, you have all the basic skills you need to start a business online.

I know people that make great money online but started knowing less less about computers and the internet than my elderly neighbor. She’s 66, but they simply follow instructions and formulas and make several thousand dollars each month online.

Some people I know that make tons of money online can’t even touch-type! Really, hunting and pecking two-finger method is good enough to start.

If you say that you are not technical or techie-type, or any other excuse about having technical skills, after having read this post, then you are simply afraid and don’t want to be free, or maybe you're a duckliner.

If you still think you can't start a business online because of lack of tech skills, then  the desire isn’t there. Or the desire isn't strong enough to drive you through this silly misconception.

I know many people that are afraid of failing when they use WordPress, what if they chose the wrong theme? Give me a break, don't worry about it. Everything can be changed and fixed in WordPress. Just make sure you always have backups handy.

Or email marketing, what if you forget to include your signature? or email, or you're afraid of sending the wrong link on Aweber. You know what? all of the big marketers I follow have sent me a mistake at least once.

If the big guys are allowed to make mistakes and still run a successful business, then so are you, and this includes technical mistakes!

Really, it's not a huge deal. Do try to minimize these mistakes and learn from them when you make a mistake so it doesn't happen again, but it's not the end of the world by any means.

Everyone makes mistakes. It’s part of it. Deal with it. Move on and forward!

I once met this great lady named Peggy at an event in Long Beach. I have an interview I did with her and I love her spirit and enthusiasm, you should watch the interview, I'll give you a video link to watch in a moment. The thing I really like about Peggy is that she wasn't involved with anything online before she started.

She didn't know much about anything online really, she came from the healthcare field and didn't have any computer skills or even knew where to start. So she asked a few people what she should know, what she should learn, and where to start.

Can you guess where she went to learn most of the stuff she knows now?

By the way, considering that I teach technology for a living, I would say that Peggy is an advanced computer user at this point and she did it all on her own. And she learned most of it for free! She has even attended some of the free video training I provide.

Can you guess where she learned everything she knows?

Youtube.

Well, maybe not everything she knows, but like she says on the interview, she needed to know excel so she went to Youtube, when she wanted to learn word, she went on Youtube and she gave me many more examples even off-camera.

Update: I found her video and posted it on Youtube, here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mje_Gcpcd0M

And it's true. I have created some tutorial videos out on Youtube and i know they help a lot of people. If you need help with something, a great place to look first is Youtube.

Simply use some of these special starting phrases and just add the topic you're interested in:

• how to + topic
• lessons + topic
• "for beginners" + topic
• tutorial + topic
• "video series" + topic

Like this: "how to" record a podcast. For more detailed examples and a full search guide and cheat sheet, don't forget to download the free workbook (Sorry my loyal readers at notagrouch.com the workbook is in progress as well, but if you stay tuned, you'll be the first to know when it's available for download).

The reason I like using "for beginners" and "video series" is because the results from these phrases tend to have more than one video to give you more information you may not even know you needed. This is when you start learning about how much you don't know you don't know. This is a great thing!

I bet you know more about the internet and how to use it than you realize. And I'm being literal there, you don't realize how much you already know.

The stuff you need to research will lead you to some technology based decisions. I bet you're not afraid of doing something like that. Or when you pick up a new hobby or take on new roles at work. You are often faced with technology based questions this thing we're talking about here, it's no different.

Don't be afraid of starting a business online because you think you don't know anything about computers or the internet. That's just plain nonsense.

The post No Tech Skills Needed to Start a Business Online appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

I am also using this to show off my clean shaven look now. After a month of growing a mustache and a scruffy beard, I'm glad to be back to my normal self.

The post Photo Booth iPad App appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

In our DNA

There are a few moments in life --people say-- that you'll remember forever and as few moments in life that will change your life forever. Having met John Chow was one of those moments for me. I know... this sounds like a bromance story, but believe me it isn't.

You see, as I've said before, I've always been an entrepreneur. My family has a large number of entrepreneurs in it and in our history. It's as Gary Vaynerchuck would say in our DNA. So ever since I was a little kid I tried doing stuff for profit. It never quite worked out in a way that I was satisfied, I have had several businesses and many of them turned a really nice profit and lasted quite a while but I got bored with them. Many failed miserably.

Combine an opportunistic mind with shiny object syndrome and you have me. Aware of many opportunities that are available and going after the one that attracts me the most, until I'm bored with it. But the one thing that I've always liked doing is making money. I'm not the best at saving money, but I can be pretty damn creative at making it.

As a kid I washed cars for the neighbors for cash, in middle school I arm wrestled for my lunch money or would have slingshot "shoot outs" of cans and bottles for money.

Pop corn at the beach

Once I tried selling pop-corn with a friend at the beach, but he was much older and was just playing with me. He set me up as a prank and never showed. As insignificant as that may sound that event changed my life tremendously.

This kid was my friend and we had this whole thing planned, but the morning of our "big day" he wasn't there.  I had spent the better part of the previous afternoon and night preparing everything. We had agreed that I'd come over there and use a code to wake him up so we could get going. He didn't show, he didn't open the door when I went to get him at 7 am.

Later on the day he made fun of me of how I was using the "clap and whistle" code we had come up with earlier to get each other outside without alerting our parents. He thought it was hilarious how I had fallen for it. I didn't think it was funny. I was around 10 or 11 years old.

I lost trust in people a lot that day. I don't think I was really hurt, but I wondered if people were like that in general and at the age of 10 or 11, that's a tough realization to come to. Probably much deeper than I could comprehend at the time.

Life went on, we moved many times and I continued to figure out little ways to make money.  But it wasn't until I was 17-18 that I started really thinking about running a business or making serious money.

Detailing cars

I started a mobile detailing business, way before doing so was popular. But again, I didn't take it too seriously because I was taught all my teenage years in school and through people that I needed to go to school and get a job. So I was always studying and looking for a "regular job" but even when I got a regular corporate job I didn't stop my auto detailing.

It was great to get a paycheck from a technology startup and then go out and make 400 - 600 bucks each weekend detailing cars. It was fun but I was spending all my cash on toys and fun, and never really thought much more about the business. No long term plan, no growth strategy. I was just having fun. I didn't plan.

One day my garage and all the supplies burned down, my home garage. All my equipment and chemicals went up in flames. I was also taking on 20 - 30 hours of overtime at week at work so I didn't rebuild my detailing business after that. I thought that was a sign that I should focus on my "job" and career instead. So I did.

It was both a blessing and a curse. I think if I had bought everything back up and continued my detailing gig, I'd be pretty rich by now. I was good  at it. And over $400/day isn't something to sneeze at. But the blessing came in that I was more focused at work and I got to learn a lot more from many different people a lot faster. I moved up in the company, from operations, to IT,  to IT management. Then the itch came back. I had to "do my own thing"

The search for more

I wanted to do more, I was getting bored at work, I tend to master a topic or task fairly quickly and then get bored of it so I have to continue to improve and make changes otherwise monotony will kill me. So I went online to see how I could make more money online. As you can see in one of my 100 things you didn't know about me list, one of them is that I wanted to make 1 million by the time I was 30. I have made a lot of money but not quite 1 million yet, probably over 1/2 but I've spent it all. I certainly don't have a lot to show for.

So I went online to look for something, and nothing seemed interesting, but blogging did. I had been blogging on and off since before it was called "blogging" I started on a platform called open diary, then I had my own html website (rakxzo.com) and then I tried a php based blog, and eventually in 2004 I tried WordPress. I loved it and I was blogging from time to time, and then I found that you could make money online with a blog. Or so this guy claimed. This guy was John Chow.

Enter John Chow

So I tried out what this guy John Chow would say, but I only would do part of it because I thought I knew better. This guy didn't even spell check his stuff! So I would make a little bit of money and then quit, I wasn't happy about it. I tried other things, I tried following other people but it always came back to John.

As I continued in my corporate rat race, I decided I would start taking on side clients because the people at work would often refer me to their family and friends for computer or network or website help. Eventually this led to "website" help and I officially became an all around friendly neighborhood computer guy.

Do as I say not as I do

Funny enough, I would read and learn all these things from John and other bloggers that supported his claims, but I would never implement them for myself. I'd just think about them as if that was enough to make them work. The funny thing is that I would advise my website clients to do the same things John was telling us on his blog... and they would do these things and it would work for them. One of the reasons I didn't fully follow John's stuff was because at times, he would come across as an arrogant money hungry person.

And dummy me, I kept thinking that it was just beginners luck that my clients were making money by following John's advice.  I thought maybe I could just keep making money by helping them make money online while charging them a fee. I never really tried the techniques completely. I would read them and agree that they made perfect sense and that, "well of course that works! duh!" but then I'd go back to the water cooler chats at work, drinking my coffee or chatting about the latest episode of Lost.

Social Media shenanigans

Then Social Media became all the rage and along with website services, I began offering social media advice and consulting, strategy and design. So I was now a full service technology solutions one man show. IT, networks, support, desktop and mobile and also websites and marketing support.

Everything I know I learned from the experts and forums and practice at work. Dave Taylor and Chris Pirillo as well as support from countless forums helped me sharpen my technical edge with desktop, server and network support and tech support. Authors like Sobell gave me the insights into Unix, Linux and Networking, at the same time, slowly but surely, the online marketing experts were leaving their footprint in my mind as well.

Combine that vast knowledge resource pool and add the luck to work with two of the best sysadmins (Steve and Steve) and network admins (David) in the planet and by the time I was 29 I thought I knew it all and totally quit my corporate career. I left a company of 5 years in pursuit of one more IT leadership position. This was not exactly what I wanted but I was offered a position of Director of IT, the title was nice, the pay was good so I took it. Shortly after that, the gig ended and I was left out to pick a path. Go back to a job, or do my own thing.

Flat on my face I fall

I decided to take the few side clients I had, my knowledge and expertise and go out on my own instead of looking for a new job. I started thinking I knew it all but I fell flat on my face. I thought I knew how to sell, and how to provision and deliver. But I was wrong. I knew how to do the work but the business side of things was new to me. When you're in a corporation generally, someone else does the sales, someone else does the marketing, someone else does billing. You just do your work.

I managed to get clients and to this day, my business is flourishing, but I also started paying more attention to online marketing, and selling online and making money from the internet instead of having to seek out customers in the traditional ways. I also became a strong social networker. Now, people know me in Orange County and that's a cool thing. It's strange that sometimes people know me more by my Twitter name Notagrouch than by my name, but it's still fun.

Reinventing myself

So as I became a networker, I tried to attend as many events and meetups as possible to connect with people.. One of these meetups I found was SMMOC or Social Media Mastermind Orange County. I became a regular there and loved it. SMMOC takes place on Saturday mornings and it is where you go talk about social media in Orange County. Every other group I've been to pales in comparison. So I became a regular member and made lots of friends and connections.

One day I arrived late, and I had to sit on the couch in the back. But next to me my friend Denise was busy noting things down and paying attention. As I settled down I noticed a new person in the group. He looked strangely familiar but couldn't quite figure out why. After a little while, I turned to Denise and asked her "Is that John Chow?" And she just shrugged quietly.

I thought, it can't be, he lives in Vancouver, what he be doing here in Costa Mesa and at SMMOC out of all places. I had to look up his picture just to make sure I was wrong. But turns out it was him. Then I jumped on the conversation the group was having, probably about klout or something, and answered the topic at hand but also asked the group if they knew who this was. Nobody knew! I was blown away. -- That's topic for another blogpost, but let's just suffice it to say that if you're in a niche, you should know who the players are. So I introduced him to the group.

New friendship

We became friends after that. Turns out that John is actually quite a nice guy despite what many people think about him. Many people make negative assumptions about him. Probably because he portrays the success they've not been able to achieve; part of it could be jealousy or just a way to reinforce their belief that they can't or shouldn't do what he does. But not only did we become friends, good friends, but he's been kind of my mentor ever since.

John hanging out at Claire's babyshower.

I've changed a huge portion of my business to follow his advice and guidance. I feel that after "knowing" him for all these years, I simply couldn't ignore this chance. It was almost like a sign that what I want to do is the right thing and that I should be doing it. Out of all the places in the world, John decides to move to Irvine? That's was the opportunity of a lifetime and  I would be a fool if I let it go.

He's taken me under his wing to learn online marketing, affiliate marketing, email marketing and all the while we've had a great time. We've been to events together like Affiliate Summit, Passion to Profit, the VIP meetup, and tons of other events going on around here. We even started the Dot Com Lifestyle meetup together. He's introduced me to big people that also have helped me grow and develop my business tremendously.

So this is how I met John. And trust me when I say it, he's an alright guy.

The post How I met John Chow or how I became an online marketer appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

A little background.

I believe that John actually coined the term several years back, and it refers to the concept of having the financial freedom, to do anything you want with your time and do it from anywhere in the world. Entire books have been written about this idea. One example, the 4 hour workweek by Tim Ferris. This is Location, Time and Money freedom! So when I started running meetups, I started with Smart and Social, but Smart and Social was too broad. I was going to teach you all about technology and blogging, websites, email and social media. But I found that we didn't really have a clear focus. The answer to WHY? wasn't clear.

Our focus is clear.

So we're redefining it. The Dot Com Lifestyle will teach you technology, that is the main topic. But the focus is to learn all this stuff with the goal of quitting the 9 - 5 grind and making more than enough money from anywhere in the world. We will teach you how to run this lifestyle from your laptop, or ipad or even just an internet browser. You'll learn how to blog, how to do email, social media, google analytics, and all the other stuff you keep hearing about so you can actually make passive income and take control of your life. We invite you to join. Now, just watch this video and join us. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSynRqYyrF4

The post Announcing the Dot Com Lifestyle Meetup with John Chow appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

• What will I learn?
• I already have a home based business, why would I need to attend?
• What else is going on?

So here are the answers:

By attending the Home Business Summit in Long Beach, you'll learn about traffic generation, email marketing, online advertising and traffic conversion. In other words, you'll learn all the stuff you need to make your business grow online. These are the ingredients that most homem based entrepreneurs miss. Many of them will never find out how this works and will eventually close their business, it's a sad thing really because the techniques aren't rocket science. So you'll learn a lot about generating quality traffic for your site.

John is specifically going to cover how to brand yourself, brand growth and how to be an expert in your field.

Friday night, we'll have a cocktail and hors d'oeuvres mixer and networking. Then the next day is a full day of intense learning. Lunch of course, then at night we have the VIP party.

Sunday will have a half day session and will cover more learning.

I'm not as eloquent as I'd like to be and I'm also a newbie at this (even though I've been doing it for a long time). I'm one of those people I mentioned earlier. I have been doing so much stuff that should generate money but for the longest time, it didn't make any money. I didn't start making money with my online ventures until I learned several techniques and methods from John himself. These techniques were so "obvious" after looking back at them, but they weren't obvious when I was looking for them.

But I'll let John give you the answers to these questions. I asked him on video during our Saturday lunch in Irvine. Watch the video, it's only 2 min long.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dB2sW1OkTI

[gravityform id="9" name="Join Me For Free at the Home Business Summit"]

The post What will you learn at the Home Business Summit? appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

I've modified my photo album on here. You can find my photos now in a couple places. On the front page, you'll find a link to Photos on the right hand side on the menu bar. That will take you to my gallery of galleries and photos. You can also find some random photos on the sidebar from the home page.

[box type="note"]Edit: I added a Video wall. All my videos from Oscar Gonzalez on Youtube are now available through the Notagrouch TV link! All done with a simple easy plugin.[/box]

I finally added something under the self-development or personal development menu all the way at the top. In case you didn't or hadn't noticed, most of the top-most menu items don't work on my site, yet. I'm fixing this as I build more content. As I find little bits of time here and there I'm updating those to actually show you the intended content. So that part is ready, and it's really just a link to the posts marked as Self Development.

Also, I've re-edited my free WordPress installation page to be even simpler than it was before. The general feedback has been that it has/had too much information. So now I get to the point right away and then explain more if the reader wants to know more. Check out the free wordpress installation service offer I have if interested.

My resources page is up and available for you. It's at the very top as well under free resources for entrepreneurs. You'll find links to apps, videos, resources and guides that I've found useful along my entrepreneur journey. Mostly online resources. A great collection that will continually grow and be updated for your benefit. Check out my free resources page.

In the next month or so, I hope to redesign the header of the site and start sketching a new overall design. Maybe just tweaks and fixes. I also would like to highlight that I've been creating quite a bit of video lately in the form of Vlogs and other stuff like Tutorials. If you're into Youtube, you can check out my channel and subscribe at Oscar Gonzalez' Youtube Channel.

The post Updates to Notagrouch.com appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

I learned this first about 3 years ago when I became "the tech guy" for a radio station show in the inland empire. I had a segment of 10-30 minutes where i would discuss social media, IT and other related topics.

Fast forward to today and I have made the transition into television. Yes! I am on TV. And I don't care what you say, but being on TV is pretty dam cool.

I appeared on episode 8 of On The Street with Robert Cardoza. Today I am on set to make my second and third appearance on the show.

The show is produced by Jump Studios in San Diego. The show has a pretty wide distribution but if you don't get it on your TV, you can watch it on Ustream.tv or on YouTube after the show airs on TV.

Here are a few pictures from today's shows. On the first episode I talked about cybersecurity and cyberattacks. The second episode was about branding, content distribution and social media. I will have some more links soon, with links to the shows, schedule and other interesting resources.

The post Oscar Gonzalez in the media. appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

I'm absolutely humbled by the response to the 30 Day Blogging Challenge. I was going to tell you a story about my first entrepreneur venture when I was 6 or 7, continuing on yesterday's post. Instead I want to highlight The Challenge while it's early on. I'll tell you how I made my first "dollar" tomorrow.

First I must thank Cliff Cardin for the inspiration to join this challenge, and for pretty much starting this whole movement. Then I want to thank everyone that has participated so far. I know it's only day 2, and it's easy to get excited about any project when it first starts. But I need to make sure everyone understands how special this is.

You've all revived my love for blogging. You see, I started mucking around with websites back in 1996, my first domain, rakxzo.com had nothing for the longest time. Eventually I posted some stuff I had learned about this HTML thing. But it quickly got boring and I let it go by the wayside. I even forgot to renew the domain or I couldn't afford it, I don't remember. I re-acquired it in 2002 I think.

In 1999 I got hired by a company that survived the dot com crash, only to run out of 120+ million dollars in funding by 2005. (here is an article I dug up about their 3rd round of funding for $43M, they had 5 rounds.) I was young then and pretty much became a workaholic. 80+ hour work-weeks, doubling my salary? Soaking up wisdom and knowledge from serial entrepreneurs and titans?  Don't mind if I do. I had little time to spend in my own projects or hobbies, but I was learning and making more than most 50 year olds at 20.

I quickly moved up the corporate ladder and became a leader in the IT area. Who needed a blog back then? We had forums and private message boards to discuss all things IT and tech support. The company had so much money, my time was spent playing with the latest and greatest technology, telecom and servers. It was all fun!

Despite being all over tech boards, following and reading the likes of Chris Pirillo, I still wanted to post my own stuff. It wasn't until a couple years later that I bought muychingon.com and began posting on it like crazy. I loved it. I had started with a free php blog script I found on an opensource outlet. Then I tried a dozen programs to run your own website. Eventually I settled on WordPress.

It was awesome, you could post easily without having to worry about much of the technical stuff. It was new and things broke easily, but it was a breeze compared to other alternatives. Around the same time I was using StumbleUpon and that brought most of my traffic. I wasn't posting anything serious, mostly funny stuff I found online, some opinions and just random stuff. But it was fun responding to comments, sometimes fighting with trolls and looking at my stats grow.

Eventually the company I worked for began to tank and got bought out by IBM. I decided it was time to part ways and move on. I follwed a small crew of friends to the next company. I secretly refered to us as the remnant --a phrase I picked up during my holy roller days. I kept running muychingon for a year or two after that. I was getting 4 - 10K visitors per month, but I never made a dime from it. I actually think I made like $50 bucks from adsense; it didn't even cover 1/2 year of hosting.  At around the same time I also started another 10 - 15 websites to try to make money. I didn't make enough to make me quit my job and kinda gave up on the whole thing.

I got sick of it all and locked out muychingon.com sold and got rid of the other websites and put my nose back to the grinding wheel. But social media was just starting to take off so I thought I'd keep a prescence online "just in case" but I couldn't use my "muychingon" website because of it's meaning. With the age of social media transparency in the horizon, I decided to build this site. Notagrouch.com But blogging just wasn't the same. I felt like it was forced, traffic never really came back and blogging just became a little bit boring.

I had been following John Chow for years on and off, so I knew that people were making serious money from their blogs. Darren Rowse, Shoemoney and even the Rich Jerk kept me from giving it all up and putting my entrepreneurship dreams on the shelves. They played a big part on me keeping most of my domains alive and in renewal mode. I knew that "someday" I'd get back to blogging and that time it would be serious.

Hell, not only did I keep my domains, my list of new domains kept growing (have around 90 right now) to support the building of my ideas for the next business I was going to start. I did start a few that made decent money but they just weren't what I wanted to do. In retrospect, I should have focused on them a little more just to make serious money then do whatever I wanted. But I was afraid and jaded. Instead of earning money from running these sites, I learned more so it wasn't all wasted.

Fast forward 5 or 6 years to October of last year. To my incredible luck I met John in person last year around this time. That moment of serendipity reassured me that I should keep working on my ideas and domains. But people say "Blogging is dead" it's all about 140 characters and likes now. John chuckles at that notion of course. John has become a bit of a mentor for me and before the 30 day challenge started, around the summer I began teaching blogging to people. I thought this would renew my love for it and eventually will generate income. And it renewed my love for blogging to some degree, but nothing like yesterday.

So here we are today. Blogging again, and I've just fallen in love with it again, thanks to you guys. You have inspired me and motivated me. I hope you know that you are special. We are special, it is the bloggers that are at the top of the content food chain. Without us social media would collapse. There are only so many pictures of funny dogs, cats and food that people will tolerate before they need new fresh stuff.

Eventually you'll have to put out new fresh content or you'll just be part of the re-tweeting and curating herd. So don't listen to the naysayers. Blog! write something, share something you know, tell us a story, or teach us something. Don't neglect social media, of course. It is valuable, but your blog and your mind are much more valuable than any tweet you can ever come up with. You've got 29 days to go so keep it up. And when you get demotivated or have writer's block snap out of it. You know you have to.

So let's set the world on fire
We can burn brighter
Than the sun

- We Are Young, Fun

The post Thank you Everyone You’ve Renewed my Love for Blogging – Day 02 #30DBC appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

[soundcloud]http://soundcloud.com/notagrouch/who-is-oscar-gonzalez[/soundcloud]

The post Who is Oscar Gonzalez? appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

1. I was born in Mexico City (D.F.). Some call me a Chilango.
2. I came to the US (unwillingly at first) when I was 15. I had visited earlier when I was 12 for a couple weeks.
3. I am now a U.S. Citizen.
4. I trained in Karate for 2 1/2 or 3 years as a kid. I've had super strong abs ever since.
5. I was around 5 or 6 when I learned to ride a bike. My uncle and or cousin made the bicycle from scratch.
6. I bought my first domain in 1996 rakxzo.com which I still own. I didn't realize the potential of making money online until ten years later.
7. In 2006 I set a "master plan" in motion to be independently wealthy by the time I retire. It's slowly taking shape. It has a way to go.
8. I failed at having a net worth of 1 million dollars by age 30. (note: 3/17/2014 This has been corrected and a plan is set in motion to reach it soon)
9. My blogging experience began in 2002, it wasn't good or important until 2005 and then again in 2007.
10. I made my first website in AOL, then Geocities, then I in 2001, with Frontpage. It was online for about 7 months until I switched ISPs. I learned about hosting my own site quickly after that.
11. I am on almost every social network that has ever graced my screen. Provided it isn't junk or spam.
12. I have an awesome younger sister. She's my unsuspecting mentor. She blogs at Traveling Mango.
13. I first took a breath in this world on August 6. Thirty-five years earlier Hiroshima had been annihilated.
14. I don't believe in God. I am spiritual. This is not a contradiction.
15. In 2005, I once lost 45 pounds in 3 months, when I got tired of being overweight.
16. In Highschool I weighed 140-150 depending on the sport I was playing.
17. I've played computer games since I was 2 or 3. Atari was my first console, I also played with Intellivision. I now have a mostly-unused PS3.
18. I stopped playing video games a few years ago when I realized my financial goals weren't going to accomplish themselves and I was spending way too much time playing video games
19. I've played soccer with a coconut, old juice cans, gallon-sized milk containers, on a dirt field and barefoot. Trust me, nothing beats a soccer ball, socks, and cleats.
20. I ran around on Estadio Azteca field once as a kid. Maybe I didn't, I'm not so sure anymore. 
21. I once devoted 3 - 8 hours a day playing World of Warcraft. I have only memories to account for that time; really good memories.
22. I once read: "Fear the man that doesn't fear God." I live that, both as a man that doesn't fear God and I pay attention to who's fearful of God.
23. I love beautiful websites. I find them difficult to build.
24. I spend 9 - 16 hours a day in front of a computer of some sort. It is my job and passion.
25. I have brown eyes.
26. Matias y El Pastel de Fresas was my favorite book as a kid; I want my kids to have a copy, but it's out of print.
27. I have anarchist tendencies. I question everything and often come across as defiant. I don't care.
28. I have visited three countries so far; I intend on visiting every continent.
29. I type about 75-90 wpm. I can break 100+ if I practice for 11 days straight.
30. For almost a year I ran a few of websites hitting 100-300K PV/month. I made about $46.00 from them. I spent over 1K.
31. The education I got from running my own sites was worth more than 1K.
32. I don't have kids. (update, see #133 and #140)
33. I learn from doing and practicing; I hone by reading and discussing.
34. I don't like politicians.
35. I love books.
36. By age eight I had been to more museums than most people will visit in a lifetime.
37. For three years or so I was part of the youth leadership in a Christian church in the field of apologetics.
38. I learned all the reasons to know that God doesn't exist.
39. I've read the Bible 3 to 5 times, depending on how you count it, but I've never been able to read Psalms from beginning to end.
40. I have visited over 18 of the 31 states in Mexico. I've visited 7 states in the US and 2 major cities in Canada.
41. I have never been to a professional Football (NFL/AFL) game.
42. I don't think that we give enough credit to our educators.
43. I don't think most of our educators are capable.
44. I don't believe in victimless crimes. There shouldn't be laws against them; thus they shouldn't be called crimes.
45. I believe in doing the right thing above all else.
46. I can be persuaded by facts and reason.
47. I don't believe in miracles or luck or in the Rapture.
48. One of my favorite movies is Stand by Me; another is The Thomas Crown Affair; I have a top 10 list so there's 8 more.
49. I'm a good swimmer. I took lessons for 3+ years as a kid.
50. I've swum in the open ocean, off a boat, with dolphins, and in rough weather and in dangerous waves; I almost drowned in a pool at age 4.
51. I used to experiment with food a lot; my sister and I made scrambled eggs with strawberries one time.
52. I'll eat almost anything; I've eaten crickets and ant eggs, in addition to cow's brains, tongue, eyeballs and other parts I do not want to talk about.
53. I can't lie; my body betrays me in way too many ways.
54. Most "reality TV" isn't real; more importantly, it sucks at entertaining me.
55. Among my favorite writers are: Orwell, A. Huxley, Michael Ende, Dean Koontz, Neruda, Garcia Marquez.
56. I enjoy watching Man vs. Wild, I prefer Survivorman, I'm getting into Dual Survival now.
57. I grew up with books; they have been a constant in my ever-changing life.
58. I once had a decent auto-detailing business; before detailing cars was popular. It burned down in a fire; I have worked in corporate ever since.
59. I met my wife at the pool; she was my neighbor.
60. I fell in love with wine shortly after I fell in love with my Wife.
61. I've been blogging for years, yet nobody reads my blog. (except for you guys reading this list). I don't care. Edit (2014) This is starting to get traction, so thanks for all of you that keep coming back to read my stuff!
62. I hate standardized tests; I do well in them.
63. If I seem like I question everything, it is because I do. Understanding things is embedded in my DNA and I can't help it; I also know this annoys people and think that's too bad.
64. I *also* hate when drivers don't use their signals!
65. I am not good at sugarcoating stuff; nor do I want to become good at it.
66. I had an iPhone, am a secret Blackberry fan and currently have an affair with my EVO Android phone Galaxy S4.
67. I own a number of computers; some run OS X; some run windows; a few run Linux.
68. I believe strongly in symbolism and interconnectedness.
69. I like debating, either side of a good argument.
70. I enjoy walking my dog, but prefer to ride my bike with him alongside.
71. I have a lot of patience. It's bad when I run out of patience; fortunately, only a small handful of people have ever seen that.
72. I once owned over 145 domains; I've cut back down to 86 60. Only about a dozen are public
73. I'm always learning more HTML, CSS, and other tools for what I love doing. computer stuff.
74. I can usually fix it, or know who/how can do it.

75. 

    I had the first Blackberry in late 1999, early 2000. The 850 model, email, AA batteries and 2-way text FTW. Pagers are so 1999! I've had every blackberry model since and up to the Curve when I switched to an iPhone.

76. I am not shy or humble; but I should be more of both.
77. I'm a Mac and a PC and a Penguin too.
78. I'm at home on the command line.
79. I use Vi.
80. I love to watch the Discovery, History & Science Channels; both the brand named ones and all related to the topics.
81. I started cooking meals for others when I was seven.
82. I love cooking.
83. I love to hear people's amazing life journeys.
84. I put two bullies in their place as a kid, by myself. They stopped being bullies.
85. My uncle and cousin taught me to fight for myself.
86. I feel terrible when we cook crab or lobster at home; if they're alive.
87. I love seafood, especially shellfish.
88. I was allergic to shellfish; I fought the allergy by eating a shrimp burrito or bowl once a week for over a year until the allergy went away. Rubio's enjoyed having me as a customer for that time.
89. I drink 6-12 sodas, 100-200 beers, 12-30 bottles of wine and lots of tea and juice each year, and I try to balance that out with about 2300 pints of water.
90. I have looked at an average of 35 websites a day somedays is over 80, this I know since StumbleUpon started counting but the real number is probably much higher. When I tell you "I've seen that already" I'm not just 1-upping you or pissing in your parade, really, I've seen that.
91. I paid attention to academics in school. I did sports and read a lot. I am better because of this.
92. I am the oldest of two.
93. I love watching movies. No, really. I do. I've watched pretty much all three-or-better stared movies on Netflix. (update 2021-06-14, obviously Netflix has grown tremendously since I wrote this list, so this is no longer true. They also removed the ratings altogether).
94. My first cat was named Guadalupe. I thought it was the funniest thing. Guadalupe is generally a name associated with a Catholic idol in Mexico and most of Latin America, called "La Virgen de Guadalupe" or "Guadalupe's Virgin". Her nick-name was "Lupita"
95. Double ROFL. Our second cat, a kitten we kept from one of Lupita's 2nd litter was named "Lolita", together they were Lupita & Lolita.
96. My grandfather died of emphysema; he was a 3-pack a day smoker until my sister was born when he quit; apparently, it was too late. 15 years later it caught up with him. I miss him.
97. I am often ahead of my peers and industry when it comes to trends in technology.
98. I would rather eat a steak than an ice-cream sundae; every time.
99. I am a huge animal lover. I can read animals well.
100. I've read the 48 Laws of Power and The Art of War; I believe in many of their teachings.
101. I think I like thrift stores and antique shops but I really loathe them.
102. I am bilingual; and can properly write in both languages.
103. I want to be trilingual.
104. I love music, and one day I'll learn how to play at least one instrument.
105. As a child, I was afraid of a black gorilla that lurked in dark closets; he disappeared when I was 11 or 12.
106. If I never had another piece of chocolate I would not miss it.
107. If I could do my life over, I would do it all the same except with more intensity.
108. I *also* believe the truth is always enough.
109. I am a terrible dancer; I still dance.
110. I want to own a supercar, specifically a customized M5, 850i, S6 or S8, a Lotus, or a 12 second Hummer, but any supercar will do.
111. I trust and respect everyone I meet, until they break that respect or trust.
112. I care very little about what people think of me or what the status quo is.
113. I have never been picky about food; it's hard to understand why others are.
114. I *also* think most people think of me being argumentative. I think its one of my best traits; most people will disagree. I'm passionate, blunt and I believe in truth and will stand by that. I'd rather be passionate about things than acquiescent.
115. I try and do too many things for too many people way too much.
116. *Knock* on wood, I've never been driving in an accident. I intend to never have a driving accident while I'm at the wheel.
117. I've never played a role-playing game offline; like D&D.
118. I can recognize almost anyone I know by a quick glance of their butt or a split-second of looking at their walk. Not sure why or how, I think everyone has a weird ability like that.
119. I can read people's intentions easily.
120. I get how men wearing a pink dress shirt is trendy; I still won't.
121. I am reconsidering the last point after attending one of Joel Bauer's seminars. The pink tie might just be the compromise we're lookin for.
122. The closest I ever came to wearing pink is a pink-accented tie during my Vegas wedding; because she requested it.
123. I used to do crazy things like jumping off a 3rd story balcony to a pool on a bike. Or walking through a snake infested swamp, knee deep. When I went back to these places as a young adult I couldn't believe it. I could have died many times. Seriously.
124. I have nice and expensive clothes; I usually leave them in the closet.
125. I'm a dog AND a cat person.
126. I'm an autodidact.
127. I have a dog named Picasso.
128. I believe movies should be judged on 1. story line, 2. execution 3. production quality. NOT on subject matter.
129. Social Media, The Cloud, Web 2.0, are all trendy words to describe nerdy stuff. I don't like the terms but I embrace them because they serve their purpose. To classify, categorize and explain in simple terms.
130. Some videos make me laugh, some make me cry, I go back to them every once in a while
131. Because they inspire me, to be happy, cheer up, do more with more people.
132. Because they take it to "the next level" (video removed #sadface)
133. I had my first kid on December 6, 2012. Her name is Claire and she's awesome.
134. When I think of my late grandfather I think that he would have loved the internet.
135. Technology is awesome and I'm a child of the technology era and I love it.
136. Ever since early High school days I've pulled all-nighters on a regular basis. It's easy for me to stay up all night and work on servers, websites or some other project.
137. I hate long voicemails. If you go over 30 seconds or so, I just delete it. Seriously. Leave your name number and a brief description of your reason for calling. I will call you back, otherwise, you'll be ignored.
138. I had a radio spot for almost 2 years. Yeah, like real radio. I talked about social media, technology, privacy and business online. I learned a lot and it was a great experience.
139. I get grief from everyone in regards to #136. But I also read that we should let our bodies decide. I feel great before, during and after.
140. We are now expecting our second kid, a boy.
141. ... (leave me a comment asking for more!)

That's me through tidbits of information. Thanks for reading!

• Edited 03/17/2014 - Changed #61 My traffic is growing!
• Edited 11/21/2012 - Added a couple more, we're at 136!
• Edited 7/27/2011 - couple additions, a couple of removals & corrected some spelling mistakes.

The post Over 100 Things You Didn’t Know About Me appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.