Tyler Cruz is the blogger at TylerCruz.com, a webmaster blog.  This article is a free review for Tyler Cruz.  If you would like your website reviewed, contact me!

What is TylerCruz.com?

TylerCruz.com is a blog about making online by an Internet Entrepreneur.  Tyler Cruz, the man behind the curtain, is a “web publisher and entrepreneur” who makes a living by writing on his blog, building websites, and selling advertising on his blogs.  Pretty straight forward and upfront.  In addition to making websites and selling advertisements, Tyler has been mastering the art of making money anyway he can, including by brokering website sales and earning up to $23,000 per sale!Take a look at some of Tyler’s articles to get a feel for his work:

Perseverance Pays Off

Doing the Right Thing Pays Off

How I Plan to Increase My Blog Revenue

Tyler Cruz’s $300 RSS Contest

$150 46-Hour Week Challenge Results

Slick, Real Slick

Tyler’s website stands out from the crowd the second the page loads up.  Welcomed by a well designed, pleasing, easy to use, fun theme, this blog seems to hit all the right notes from the get-go.  This website, designed by Reality Hosting is very user-friendly and, I think, does a nice job of capturing the essence of the blogger and the website with the logo design.  This website makes me want to read more about posts and makes me wish I had a cool design like that too!On the Up and Up

Like this blog, Tyler’s readership numbers are up, RSS subscribers are up, and income is up.  Unlike this blog, Tyler’s website is actually making him money! J  His main poker website nets him a cool 6 large on a monthly basis, but his blog has started making him over $1,000 per month.  I think that every blogger has something to learn.  Even blogstar John Chow learns something new once in a while, I bet.  With all the “make money online” blogs out there, it is refreshing to find a blogger who tells it how it is, owns up to challenges and makes good on promises.  I see that this blog will be around for a while and look forward to reading it for a long time to come.

2007 is almost out of here and 2008 will be with us in just a few weeks.  In time for the new year, I am making several Blog Resolutions and setting up goals for this site.  I decided that in order to measure my blogging progress, goals are a definite necessity and I was prompted to write about them today when I saw this post over at Daily Blog Tips.

Out of the laundry list of metrics from the Daily Blog Tips post, I have selected 5 that I think are important to this blog at this stage in the game.  This blog is only 2 months old and it has already seen an increasing number of visitors on a daily basis, but I know the numbers could be much better.  That’s why I selected these 5 metrics for 2008.

Daily Visits

Currently this blog averages 32 unique visitors per day, up from 18 on its first month.  I know that the quality of my blog posts are good, so I need to work on marketing the site and meeting other bloggers to help me raise the number of unique visitors to this site.  I don’t think it would be all that difficult or unlikely to hope for a 10x increase in visitors, so by the end of 2008, I would like to see at least 320 unique daily visitors to this blog.

RSS Subscribers

Another metric dealing with the visibility of this site, I want to keep raising the number of readers that subscribe to my RSS feed.  I feel that an RSS readership can help to spread the word about my site in addition to adding another income stream for when this site starts receiving more visitors.  Currently, I have exactly 9 RSS readers.  This number has fluctuated to 15 in recent weeks and I think it will continue to rise as the site gains momentum.   By the end of 2008, I want this site to have no less than 200 RSS subscribers.  If you’re not yet an RSS subscriber, sign up today!

Weekly Posts

As a measure of my stamina as a blogger, I will keep track of the number of posts I do per week.  I currently do not keep track of this stat but think that I write 4 or 5 times per week.  I think this is a good number but would like to average 6 posts per week for 2008.  This may be in the form of multiple posts per day, one post per day, or a combination thereof.  With 6 posts per week and 52 weeks in a year, that means at least 312 posts next year.

Alexa Rank

Alexa measures the popularity of a given site but you can only see detailed stats for a site if it is one of the top 100,000 sites.  Currently, LearnHow2Earn.com is sitting at 881,320 and at the end of 2008 I would like to see this site in the top 100,000, according to Alexa’s rank.  With a rank better than 100,000, this site will be in good enough shape to start bringing in some money through affiliate offers and advertising sales.

Monthly Revenues

As of today, December 19, 2007, this website has not made me any money yet. Although I have a few ads running on the sidebar, these are affiliate ads that I put there to see if people clicked on them.  Given that I have received a few clicks from those ads, I have not made any sales yet.  If I am able to reach my goals of 320 unique visitors and 200 RSS readers by the end of 2008, I don’t think it would be unreasonable to expect this blog to sell advertising spots, “pay per post” type reviews, and affiliate products.  With 320 unique daily readers (up to 520 if you factor in the RSS subscribers), there is no reason why I should not make money with the site and I think that I can position myself nicely to make at least $1000 a month from this website.

There you have it, my goals for 2008.  I have made a list, printed it out several copies and hung them around places where I will see them on a daily basis.  I enjoy sharing my ideas and experiences with my readers, appreciate all of the comments that I have received and look forward to meeting more people in the year to come.  Thanks to all who have come to this site, those who have subscribed to the RSS feed, and those who have linked to my posts.  I wish you all a great end of the year, safe travels, good holidays, and a successful 2008!

Although I still have 6 months until I graduate, I found this video on YouTube that is really inspiring. Steve Jobs has had a pretty interesting life; from college dropout to CEO Superstardom, he is a visionary and someone who sticks to his guns in order to make sure that his dreams come to fruition.

In this commencement speach given to students at Stanford, he talks about 3 things only. There are a couple of funny remarks but his encouragement to the Stanford grads was to live the dream and make things happen. I like it and found it worthy of sharing it with you.

For you IE folks, there seems to be a problem with display the videos so here is the direct link.

This is another one of Swanson’s Unwritten Rules of management.  His book is good is provides me with inspiration on a daily basis.  This is the one that I read yesterday.  Swanson’s unwritten rule number 10 speaks volumes about fighting apathy and getting things done.

In doing your project, don’t wait for others; go after them and make sure it gets done.

“This rule is about perseverance as well. Don’t be passive, don’t just react, and don’t assume.

Decide and act. Make sure everybody is on the same page and moving out with you. Ask for help if you need it. Understand what it will take to keep the project moving.

Follow-up is essential and will help ensure success of the project. When done, be sure to share the credit.”