Money Making Images

On Tuesday I wrote about how Images Bring Traffic. One of the comments, from ahsoon, suggested taking this a further step and use the images also to make money.

I must admit I had previously toyed with this idea. He suggested using PicsPay.

The two things that have put me off using similar programs have been:

(1) Being unsure of the reliability of the website to ensure that the photos are uploaded quickly onto my blogs. I dislike seeing blogs where the photos are missing and you end up with blank squares with a little red cross in the top left corner.

(2) The payments offered are generally quite small.

Anyway I thought I'd have a look at PicsPay and do a small test to see if it is viable and works properly.

I've only just joined so I can't give a full opinion at the moment. I'll do this later after I've seen it all in action.

It all seems straightforward enough. You upload photos, put these on your blog and get paid for the number of clicks on the actual photos.

Now what you earn isn't a lot! It's $1 per 5000 clicks, so it's not going to make you rich. But if you are publishing images/photos anyway you might as well try and make them work for their keep. Every little helps.

Payments are made following $10 earnings and are made by PayPal.

I'll leave it at that for now until I can give some proper 'proven' facts and figures. If anyone knows a similar, reliable program with better remuneration please leave the details in a comment.

The two photos, by the way, are of a local visitor attraction, the Eden Project, here in Cornwall.

Good luck,
Mike.

The Smorty Money Making Experience

I wrote on the 22nd of this month that I had joined Smorty to see how it works in practice. This is my experience - and, no, I'm not being paid to write this!

I applied to join Smorty on the 14th of November and received confirmation that my blog was deemed suitable on the 16th.

Note: To be accepted blogs must be at least three months old and averaging a minimum of two posts per week. They must also be indexed by Google and Yahoo. They also state that, 'It can take up to 72 hours to have your blog approved/declined'.

On the 17th I wrote a post for them. The value was only $6 but this was really as a test more than for making money.

Note: At the time of me choosing an offer to complete there were five available.

On the 24th my post was officially approved.

Note: Advertisers have five full days to review posts. If they have not by then been disputed they are automatically approved. In other words it takes five full days for a post to be okayed.

On the 28th $6 was paid into my PayPal account.

Note: The official quoted Smorty pay schedule: 'Bloggers get paid on a weekly basis. As soon as your post has been approved, which takes 5 days, you will be paid for that blog article on the first payment day of that week.' Payments are made to members by PayPal.

So there you go: 14 days after submitting my blog I received a first payment. All of that seems to work just fine - no complaints at all.

Let's look a little deeper at the potential to make money with Smorty. They write, 'As soon as there is a new available campaign for your blog(s) you will be receiving an email from us describing the task and deadlines.'

Since I joined I have received four such emails offering me between $6 and $10.80 to write a post. Problem was that by the time I clicked to look at these offers three of them had all been taken.

Generally when I've logged in to Smorty there are four or five offers listed for me to take up if I wish to do so. The values of these range between $6 and $12 and I don't usually feel that they are suitable for this blog. Two today, for example, are for casinos.

If I was asked to compare Smorty with PayPerPost I would say that PPP is far superior. Today PPP had 16 offers I could take up and these ranged from $5 to $29 (though with this one a video was required). PPP also offer $20 for a new members first post.

The advantage with Smorty is that you are paid quicker than with PPP - they take 30 days from when you first publish your post.

If I was to give a score for smorty it would be 3/5.

Pros: Efficient, quick payments for work carried out.
Cons: Low value offers, offers taken up quickly, it won't make you rich.

If you are just looking to make a few dollars and want to be paid reasonably quickly then Smorty is fine. If you want more earnings potential then PayPerPost is a better bet. Of course, there's no reason why they both can't be used in tandem.

Good luck,
Mike.

Be Prepared To Make Money

Happy New Year! Do you follow the Boy Scout's motto 'Be Prepared'? If you do you'll be getting ready for 2008.

"Hang on a minute," you might say, "We haven't had Christmas yet."

True but, when we make money with blogs, we have to get ready for all peak seasons, special days and holidays.

Do you know what you'll be promoting as soon as 2008 comes waltzing into our lives? It's a time for New Year Resolutions so anything to do with them will sell well.

In the past I've had a couple of experiences of this. First, when I published my magazines one of them was for penfriends. And when did they sell best? January. People want to make new friends and relationships.

I was also a distributor for Herbalife, quite a while back, and business went mad at the start of each new year. Everyone seemed to want to try and lose weight, so their products sold well.

It's the same with making money with blogs. If you have the right products at the right time they are more likely to earn you commission. It's pretty obvious but it's no good waiting until January, in the case of New Year orientated products, before looking for the right affiliate program.

Be Prepared and plan ahead so that you are ready to swing into action on January 1st and on February 14th and on ....

Make sure 2008 starts off with a bang - of sales and commission, that is.

Good luck,
Mike.

DIY Dating. Get your own free dating website and with the potential to make excellent commission.

Images Bring Traffic

I was checking through my stats for yesterday and it suddenly struck home the value of images for attracting visitors to blogs. It's something that we, well I, often overlook. Below are the search engine referrals for yesterday for my celebrity blog.

Search Engine Referrals Nov 26, 2007

As usual Google heads the list, as it no doubt does for most blogs, but in third place is Google (again) but for Image Searches. For me 52 referrals from them for yesterday was a very worthwhile contribution.

Of course some blog niches lend themselves more to images (photos) than others but they are always of value.

Firstly because they make posts more interesting. And there's that saying about a picture being worth a thousand words and to a degree this can be true.

If, for example, I had simply written in this post that I had 'xx' amount of search engine referrals it wouldn't have had the same authority as seeing the actual report from which I got the information. Images can also confirm what we write is true.

The second reason is, because of what I have already said, images can produce hits/traffic/referrals or whatever else you may want to call them.

From my own experience I believe that it's best to name the image exactly what it is. Many people just give them a number - I'm sure search engines appraciate this.

It's also important, I feel, to use "alt" and describe what the photo is.

Some say alt was originally introduced in case the image wasn't always visible, because of differing formats. This may be true but it's also an opportunity to use a keyword and maybe a couple of other secondary words - all useful for SEO. Seemingly Yahoo search engine likes this.

So sprinkle a few images, photos, illustrations around your blog and at the very least it will make it more pleasing on the eye. Hopefully it may bring a few additional benefits as well.

Good luck,
Mike.

Blogging Good Blogs. Books on blogging and how to become a successful blogger.

Money Making Reality Check

As most of us know a good source of income can arrive from introducing other bloggers and webmasters to the various affiliate and money making programs that we join. There is usually a percentage bonus based on what these people earn.

This is great because it is virtually unearned income but, at the same time, it's where a lot of people also get disheartened.

There is a truth that not many affiliate programs want you to know. This is the fact that most of the people you introduce will do either no business at all or very little.

This doesn't reflect on the affiliate program. It's simply how things work out in any selling niche.

This may sound negative but it shouldn't. There's not a lot you can do about human nature.

What you have to do is to try and introduce as many people as possible and make this as important as selling, or getting clicks, for whatever the products or service is.

Once more this is a numbers game. The more people you introduce the more likely you are to hit on the one or two who will actually produce an income for you.

Before I was self employed and published magazines I was a manager for a finance and credit company and had a team of around twenty sales men and women.

Out of these twenty there would normally be one real go getter who would smash sales targets, win prizes and do a mountain of business.

After this there would be four or five who did okay and then things deteriorated with the moaners at the bottom of the pile - who would have many excuses as to why they hadn't done well.

And this is how it was, no matter how you swapped personnel.

It was the same when I was involved with multi-level marketing. Sign up dozens of new distributors and only a couple would do any worthwhile sales.

Saying this shouldn't put anyone off from trying to get new affiliates, agents or whatever you want to call them. It's simply meant as a reality check.

If you keep going what you will eventually get are one, two or three really productive people who will earn you a good income. They are out there but you have to wade through a lot bodies to reach them. Once you do the cash tills will start to ker-ching.

Always play to your strengths not your weaknesses. If you get someone good and there is a way to help them then do so. Forget the strugglers as it's doubtful that, however much effort you put in, they will make you anything worthwhile.

It's a sad fact but, in all walks of life, there are winners and losers. Sign up a few winners and the world is your oyster - and other such cliches.

Good luck,
Mike.

DIY Dating. Get your own free dating website with the potential to make excellent commission

Making Money With Free Stores

Further to my post Money Making But Not For Everyone here's their check, on the right, that I was expecting from them. Again paid on time.

The question always being asked is: How do you promote such money making programs which offer free stores?

By this I mean programs that give you a free website: Things like: DIY Dating, Amazon aStores, Convergence (over 18's only) and Zlio.

The answer is: Pretty much as you would any blog.

Here is a quick list, but there are hundreds of others once you give the subject some proper thought. Some may work, some won't - that's life.

The thing to remember with stores/shops is that you have to do something to create traffic to your free website. It won't just arrive by itself. You can't simply join, create your site and sit back.

Anyway, here's that quick 'brainstorm' list. I'm sure you'll be able to add many more ideas.

1. Join forums and discussion groups and have a link within your signature.
2. Write press releases and submit them to press PR websites.
3. Write and submit articles to the many article directories.
4. Submit your website to any directories with similar niches.
5. Promote them on your blogs - both with banners and small text ads at the end of posts.
6. Get links from other blogs.
7. Write a freebie ebook or report with links to your store/shop.
8. Obtain referrals from similar but non competing sites.
9. Try free traffic exchanges such as Blog Soldiers, Blog Explosion, Traffic Swarm, Blog Mad
10. Leave comments on other blogs with a backlink.
11. Advertise on free advertising sites such as Craigs List.
12. Include your URL on all emails sent out.
13. Exchange links with related sites.
14. Join myLot and leave URL when you write comments and join discussions. You'll also get a small commission for your participation.
15. Start your own newsletter or eZine to build a database of names and email addresses.
16. Start a new blog relative to your store/shop website and submit this to all of the blog directories - there are 100's of them.
17. Make sure you submit your store/shop to Google and Yahoo.
18. Join a link or banner exchange program.
19. Use free ads on non Internet publications.
20. Join things such as Squidoo and create pages about your store/shop.
21. Leave your link on every profile page of social network sites.

Good luck,
Mike.

YouGov: Complete surveys and polls for payment - genuine company.

Money Making Shelves

I was chatting to a bloke yesterday about supermarkets. He was something to do with the planning of where everything goes on their store shelves to maximise profits.

It seems to be quite an art: those essential items at the back of the store, so that everyone has to pass through all of the other goods to get to them, the small tempting, low cost items by the checkout - sweets, batteries, chewing gum - and so on.

I wonder how many of us plan our blogs with such detail? Do we just plonk ads anywhere? Is our subscriber info in a prominent position? Are all of the links we carry really necessary etc. etc?

I think sometimes we have to step back and look at our blogs as if we had never seen them before. Are we playing to our strengths, for example?

Often we get so carried away with writing our posts and doing the routine things that we forget the real purpose of our blogs. If it's for making money then that is the priority.

Our side columns, header and footers are our shelves. Pack them with the right goods, in the right positions, to maximise earnings. It really can make a difference.

Good luck,
Mike.

Blogging Good Blogs: Books on blogging and how to make them successful.

Smorty's Advice - Is It The Right Advice?

I recently joined Smorty as an alternative to PayPerPost. This was recommended to me by Rob at Make Money Fa$t.

What interested me today was the the advice they had entered on their website. To quote:

"There have been some recent changes that Google have made with regard to sponsored postings.

Smorty would like to offer you some advice on this issue. Google has primarily targeted PayPerPost member blogs and reduced their PageRanks across the board.

To prevent any future loss of PageRank due to this issue you can take the following steps:

1. Remove all sponsored post tags on each of your posts. Google can follow these tags to determine if you are being paid for posts.

2. Remove any PayPerPost tags on your posts for 'hire me' and 'review me'. Any general affiliate banners are fine to keep."

From what I can see it isn't necessary to mention that posts are sponsored with Smorty, but is this really right. Shouldn't our readers know when we are paid for a review?

As an alternative it's possible to have a Disclosure Policy on your blog - you can get help with this at disclosurepolicy.org - saying words to the effect that you are sometimes paid for posts and therefore may be biased in your opinions. And also that these posts will not necessrily be marked as such.

This is okay but not many readers will ever bother to read Disclosure Policies - there's enough small print in our lives. If we all do this no one will know what is genuine and what isn't and an element of trust will be lost.

The Sponsored Post problem won't go away and it's a bit of a Catch 22 situation. If you do such posts, and declare that is what they are, you'll have your PR cut. If this happens your income will also be cut as lower PRs mean lower amounts earned for such posts.

It's Google dictating what we can and can't do. Is a sponsored post so very different from an advert, for instance?

It's not if it's used to promote a product or service.

It is, however, if it is used purely for the value of the link - and this is really what Google wants to stop. And, dare I say this, it does make some sense.

I have always been against artificial means of inflating any figures. I've never joined viral chains/trains and the like to push up various rankings (though I have still been included on a few).

It's a bit like cosmetic surgery it makes blogs out to be something they aren't.

As regards Smorty I'll write more about them after I have received payment and find that everything works as it should.

I can confirm so far that my blog was approved by them within 24 hours and I have been offered posts to write for payment.

Good luck,
Mike.

More Domain Parking And More WidgetBucks

Yesterday I wrote about making money by parking a domain. The idea being to look for misspelled domain names, similar to high traffic websites, and then filling these with ads or promotional material.

Now there are also other variations on this theme and some people claim to be making decent money from this. Take, for example, Brian at DomainMoneyParking.

Brian says he made over $5000 in September.

He has an interesting website that gives ideas, information and help about Domain Parking.

I shan't enlarge on this subject, at the present time, because I haven't any personal experience -but see what you make of Brian's website and his videos.

Changing Track Completely

Regarding WidgetBucks again. I see my earnings have actually gone down. Never had this with a money making program before!

It's gone down because the Rate Per Click has been altered and backdated (none of these figures were in red). Mmmmm!

Also many WidgetBucks accounts have been suspended. In their own words:

"We continue to suspend many violating accounts, and naturally, many of those suspended publishers feel wronged, angered and frustrated. Along with our automated click fraud alert system, our account review team is dedicating significant time and energy to hand-reviewing these sites where WidgetBucks widgets are placed -- and taking swift action in removing these accounts from the network."

They go on to explain:

"WidgetBucks will become a "gated" ad network that will require approval to join. For current publishers, this does not change much for you. You are "grandfathered" into the network; however, we will continue to review sites for Terms violations."

Regarding non USA members they write:

"... we do pay publishers outside US and Canada, provided terms of use are met.

Anyone else feeling a bit uneasy? The underlining in quotes is mine.

Good luck,
Mike

Park A Domain And Count The Dollars, Pounds And Euros

In a way this post sort of follows on from the one I wrote titled Dead Blogs and Experimenting.

What do you think of Parking Domains? By this I mean purchasing domain names but 'special ones' that might just bring a reasonable amount of traffic without any effort.

I know of someone who does this and reckons he does okay. He concentrates on popular websites where their name might just be misspelled.

An example might be: www.maazon.com which people often accidentally enter when trying for www.amazon.com.

The idea is then to load up your misspelled domain with adverts, or some sort of promotional material. This then produces an income, well that's the theory, and all without having to do anything else. Park it and count the dollars!

You are too late, by the way, for www.maazon.com as Amazon have already bought this themselves. If you type in the URL you will end up at Amazon.

You've got to look for very high traffic possibilities. If a website is getting hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of hits a day it's highly likely that many people will misspell the name, either by accident or because they aren't sure of the correct spelling.

I haven't as yet dabbled in this idea myself but, time permitting, I'm going to try and find a few possible domains worth a gamble. A domain name only usually costs a few dollars so it should be possible, at the very minimum, to get a return on the investment.

What do you reckon?

Obviously other people are also doing this so it'll take a bit of hunting to track down juicy names.

Good luck,
Mike

YouGov: Complete surveys and polls for payment - genuine company.

Traffic Control For Continued Money Making

Perhaps, like a lot of bloggers, I rely heavily on search engines to bring me traffic. On my celebrity bog, for example, around 63% of my hits arrive this way and 87% of these are via Google.

I've been thinking recently that this is a dangerous practice if I wish to continue making money - especially regarding the celebrity niche.

Supposing Google altered things dramatically and my standard practice for getting good positions on search pages stopped working. I'd end up only getting 37% of the traffic I now get.

The question I'm asking is: Should we start thinking slightly differently and maybe start heading more towards social networking, in it's various forms?

There's no doubt that if we can build a community centered on our blogs this should, in theory, bring regular traffic. As everything, though, it does have drawbacks.

Regular visitors, by whatever means they arrive, are less likely to click on adverts or things that you are promoting unless it is definitely to their advantage. They also spend less time on a blog - usually just reading the latest post. This means income generated could go decrease.

We actually need fresh blood coming to our blogs to make money, therefore we need a social networking program that will do this.

It's a difficult scenario but maybe we have to start concentrating on some form of building communities, that also introduce new people to our blogs.

Things are changing with Google. We've seen a lot of bloggers PageRanks being reduced with the inference being that this is because they might have been involved with either selling links or doing clearly indicated sponsored blogs.

These PR reductions are in fact a little hypocritical of Google.

Earlier this year Google purchased Double Click who also own Performics. And who are Performics? They are a search engine marketing company - that gets websites higher rankings on Google and other search engines.

Google appear to have no plans to dispose of Performics even though they write:

"While Google doesn't have relationships with any SEOs and doesn't offer recommendations, we do have a few tips that may help you distinguish between an SEO that will improve your site and one that will only improve your chances of being dropped from search engine results altogether."

They also say: "The only way to submit a site to Google directly is through our Add URL page or through the Google Sitemaps program, and you can do this yourself at no cost whatsoever."

Getting back to the point I started with. What I'm suggesting is that the status quo might change and we should, therefore, be researching various different ways to attract traffic without relying too heavily on search engines.

Food for thought.

Good luck,
Mike.

myLot. Make money commenting on and starting discussions.

A Quote from Goethe

I've a family get together and dinner happening today so it's a quick post.

I thought I'd lift the level, as it's a Sunday, and quote something by Goethe - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe that is, the German writer (1749-1832). It's nothing to do with blogging, but there again it could be, well sort of.

Lose this day loitering - 'twill be the same story
Tomorrow - the next day more dilatory.
Then indecision brings its own delays.
And days are lost lamenting over days.
Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute -
What can you do, or dream you can begin it.
Courage has genius, power and magic in it.
Only engage, then the mind becomes heated.
Begin it and the work will be completed.

Good luck,
Mike.

WidgetBucks Don't Seem To Want Us Foreigners!

Perhaps it's just me but I feel that when any money making program alters their payment structure they should, at the very least, let their active members know about these changes. It's surely basic business etiquette.

As most readers probably know I live in England and I was surprised to read the following from WidgetBucks

"Publishers will be seeing two things, primarily. First, merchants are no longer being charged for clicks from outside the U.S. and Canada on WidgetBucks widgets, and as a result, publishers will no longer receive credit for those clicks."

And where did I read this? On ProBlogger, where there was an interview post.

Okay, I can sort of understand why they have done this. But what happens to these none wanted, none U.S clicks? They get re-directed, to quote:

"International site visitors will be redirected to mpire.com."

Ah, so there will be a payment still? Nope.

"Merchants are not being charged for that traffic, and therefore publishers will not be credited for it."

Yes, but wasn't WidgetBucks created by mpire.com? Think what you will!

Yesterday I had WidgetBucks running on blogs which had around 5000 impressions. Result: no clicks, therefore no commission. This was even though a very large percentage of my readers (60%+) are from the USA.

To think, if I hadn't have read the ProBlogger post I wouldn't have known about their move away from international clicks. It's certainly not a lesson in 'how to win friends and influence people' that's for sure. Maybe they just don't care less about non U.S members.

Grumble complete!

Never mind, there are a lot more fish in the blogosphere sea.

Good luck,
Mike.

Help With Creating Your Online Store

Let's face it, if you want to sell online you need to make it easy for the customer. It's why, for example, you need your own shopping cart and simple payment system in place.

Simplicity means a greater volume of sales. Tell someone what and how to do something and they are more likely to follow the instructions. All this means is that you require some ecommerce software that will take care of all of this for you.

ashop commerce can provide everything to set up your online store and, better still, they offer a 10 day free trial so that you can test out everything that they say is true. There's confidence for you!

If you are looking for easy to use shopping cart software ashop commerce can offer you this and much more besides, including tech support and good customer service.

Now you can go ahead and create you own Online Store.

Money Making - But Not For Everyone!

I've been debating with myself as to whether I should write about this opportunity or not. It's something I experimented with a while back and I've just noticed I've a further $40.60 commission from them this week.

I hesitate mentioning this affiliate program because I know it's definitely not something for everyone. I wouldn't advertise the products on this blog, for example.

The thing is though it is very profitable - none of the minute 5% commission say you would get from the likes of Amazon.

Okay the company is Convergence inc and the products are of an adult nature - that's why there is a lot of profit - 30% to be exact for affiliates.

Convergence inc trade under the name of sexTOYsex and they offer free websites, which can be customised with affiliates own banners. In fact affiliates can have more than one site if they so wish, again for free.

If so inclined, you set up your free website(s) and then promote the site(s) to attract visitors. When customers purchase items you are paid 30% commission and 20% on videos. Now these are serious percentages so no wonder that the top affiliates earn $50,000 per month - yes, per month.

I dabbled with Convergence when I started blogging mainly because I could understand the potential. It's obvious that these sort of products sell well on the Internet. It's all private and, for people interested in such items, there isn't the embarrassment of having to visit a shop or store

As well as adult products i.e. toys etc. there are also other things that affiliates can promote such as lingerie, video on demand, DVD's, webcams plus they are certified to sell 'prescription medications' like Cialis, Levitra and Viagra. Straightaway I must add that this is a reputable company and they do not allow spam and other junk ways of promotion.

A few answers to typical questions from their FAQ page:

Why is it free?
It doesn't cost us anything to generate a store for you. Then, if you bring in sales, we both make money.

Do I have to deal with customers?
No. We handle everything. Your only job is to bring in the customers.

Can I get more information?
Yes! We have tons! Just sign up and get a free code and password. Then log into our administration where we have free banners, instructions, marketing tips, and toll free number for support.

How do I know you will pay?
We created the first affiliate program for adult products back in 1996, and we have never missed a payment. We know that the key to our success is paying affiliates high commissions on time. If we don't pay, you will stop sending us sales.

Personal Opinion
What I can confirm is that they do pay out on time, exactly as they say they will.

Orders are often sizable. The $40.60 I have just earned was from only two orders. I placed a small ad on one of my celebrity blogs to get these.

There is quite a lot of promotional material i.e. ads, banners etc. Some, no probably most, are quite explicit but there are some which are described as 'discreet'.

It's up to individuals as to what they think of such programs and websites and whether they would want to promote such 'things' or even be involved with them. I'll say no more.

For more information this is the link (18+ only).

I'll probably never mention this affiliate program again.

A score? I'd give it 4/5.

Good luck,
Mike.

'How You Gonna Make A Dream Come True'

Phew! I like success stories but getting 7 million hits on a blog per day is something special. I went into shock when I managed 40,000+ in one day - but just imagine millions!

When I read about this my eyes were like old fashioned cash registers and my mind was doing all sorts of calculations ... If the blog used Voxant videos that would make $28,000 per day just from that (7 million divided by 1000 times $4). That's, that's $196,000 per week ... That's ... astronomical ... Now think about other advertising as well and ... well, all sorts of things.

The blog I'm referring to is Perez Hilton - nothing to do with Paris Hilton! Perez Hilton is a bloke called Mario Lavandeira and he started his blog three years ago.

The blog's name was actually influenced by Paris Hilton as it's all about celebrities (yes, yet another one). Perez and Paris sound sort of similar. The value of a good name.

The thing is though that if you go to his blog you might well think that it isn't anything that special. Sure it's got a pretty pink heading (he's gay and keeps mentioning this fact) but a lot of the posts are short and dominated by a photo, which is often doodled on with almost crude remarks or symbols.

Whatever your opinion of the blog the main point is that people (well 7 million people) want to read and look at what he writes. So much so that he has now virtually become a celebrity himself.

Perez/Mario says, "I have always been fascinated by celebrity. As a child I watched a huge amount of television and dreamed about one day being part of that world. Now I am."

See, it's that dream ... if you have a dream it can come true. If you don't have a dream then (as the song goes) 'how you gonna make a dream come true'. It's also writing about something you have a passion about.

Blogs can alter your world and you can, of course, become anything or anyone that you wish.

In Perez's words, "When I'm Perez it gives me the liberty to do things that as Mario I would never do. There's a Jekyll and Hyde thing going on. Perez says crazy things and loves to stay out late at parties. Mario likes to stay at home and be in bed by ten."

The Perez Hilton blog has a definite style of it's own plus it is continuously being updated with the latest news. It's a winning formula.

There are always lessons to be learnt from success stories if we bother to look at them properly and think about why the success has come about.

A lot of it, as I keep on saying, is giving people what they want.

Do this and nothing else really matters. You can forget about SEO, PageRank, Top Lists etc. etc. These are merely add-ons - a bit of icing on the cake.

Good luck,
Mike.

Dead Blogs And Experimenting

What recipe do you use for dead blogs?

I leave mine to mature with a good sprinkling of adverts. That way they can last within the blogosphere for a considerable time - and you never know who might come across them and perhaps do a little clicking.

You haven't got any dead blogs? I guess then you don't like to experiment and try different things. I do. I've tried all sorts of blogs on various free blogging platforms.

I get an idea in my head and then try and put it into practice. It's how I started my celebrity blogs. If I'd just kept going with only this blog I wouldn't have made as much money as I have.

I'd recommend that, time willing, everyone experiments with different blogging ideas. They might not work out but, what the heck, it doesn't cost anything to have a dabble. And it's surprising what you learn and pick up about blogging in general.

Experimenting is like taking lessons in blogging.

At the moment my current experiment is with a UK reality television show I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.

I realise how popular these sort of things are so when I heard a new series was going to start I set up a blog a couple of weeks before it kicked off (the television program actually started yesterday).

I've no idea as yet if it'll be a waste of time or not. One thing I have learned with my experiments is that it's good to anticipate things of interest and get in early. That way you get established prior to the event.

With the I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here blog I had 286 unique visitors yesterday which isn't too bad for the first day proper of the series.

By starting the blog before the event I've managed to get in some decent positions on Google.

I'm actually in first position for 'imacelebritygetmeoutofhere' - a lot of my 1200 referrals, from search engines, have come from this search word - or is it words?


This particular blog isn't long term as the TV series only lasts about three weeks but I'll be interested to see how it pans out and, more importantly, if it makes me any money - because that's what it's all about.

Hubble bubble, toil and trouble - get experimenting.

Good luck,
Mike.

Money Making Rush Like Lemmings

Sometimes I think us bloggers are like a load of lemmings diving into the latest, 'greatest' money making program. Wonder why this is? Afraid of missing out? Want to be seen as someone in the know? Must get in at the beginning?

What we should be doing, of course, is sizing up opportunities properly, doing our homework and only joining things which are compatible with our blog.

Take WidgetBucks, okay and other similar programs. The truth is they don't really work on most average blogs do they?

Product orientated, money making programs only work where the blogs have defined niches, which are related to the products - horses for courses so to speak.

WidgetBucks has good points: the advert widget now loads pretty quick, there is a $25 bonus for signing up and everything looks very professional but ... and there is often a but in life!

And my but is that the click-rate, for the blogs that I have tested it on, is dreadful. I've tried out four different widgets and the best click-rate I have been able to achieve is a measly 0.14%.

My test has been a reasonable size of about 28,000 page impressions and for this I have now earned the grand total of $5.47.

As I have already indicated, these type of programs only work to a worthwhile degree if the adverts are relevant to the blog's subject matter.

If, for example, you have a photography blog and put camera ads in your WidgetBucks widget then great, this will no doubt get some decent clicks and earn some decent revenue.

With a blog such as this one, however, it's difficult to get ads that are actually relevant to the posts. The best response I've had is with digital cameras - that's where I managed the 0.14% click-rate.

It could be argued that I haven't given the widgets a premier position. Perhaps true, but I'm not going to give them my AdSense spots as I know that I'll get a good (proven) response from these - primarily because the Google ads shown will be about money making and are therefore more likely to be of interest to readers.

By what I have written I'm not saying there is anything wrong with WidgetBucks, it's simply that I expect most general blogs will get a poor response.

I'm going to keep the ads running, after all, with the $25 sign-on bonus I only need to earn $25 to receive $50. Once I've achieved that then ... well who knows. There might be something better that we are all stampeding to get in on.

The thing is though: If something is really good, and makes money, there's no rush.

Good luck,
Mike.

ShoppingAds Not Working For Me

Not sure what's happening with ShoppingAds, this is an offshoot of AuctionAds. No ads have appeared on my blogs for two days.

I've been to their website and even there, where they indicate there should be a 'live ad', there's nothing on display.

To check further I tried to create another set of ads to see what would happen. Where there should be a 'live ad preview' nothing appears.

Things like this annoy me. If there is a problem you would think a message would appear on their site or emails would be sent out to members - it's basic business manners. (Or perhaps this is all just happening to me!)

I didn't think much of AuctionAds and now I think even less of ShoppingAds. I'm about to remove all of their ads from my blogs.

Like probably many people I initially had an email from their president, Patrick Gavin, asking me to join ShoppingAds. Part of the email said:

'Mike, as a previous user of AuctionAds I wanted to send you a private invite to our new ShoppingAds product! ShoppingAds is a cost per click ad product powered by the major shopping comparison sites.

Now you are probably wanting to email me right back and ask, "Why should I try ShoppingAds when I had such hit and miss success with AuctionAds?" The answer is because ShoppingAds is a cost per click product with predictable earnings. So you send the traffic and get paid for every click! AuctionAds is a CPA (cost per action) product so earnings were very unpredictable for many publishers. Also, ShoppingAds is built on a very stable platform and the ads are serving lightning fast! '

I guess there's no lightning about at the moment.

Other than this it's been a good week blogging wise for me. I've received over $600 in payments i.e. cash into my bank. Also traffic for the week, as I previously mentioned, has been incredible - though it was all a bit of a freak - 40,000+ in a day! But I don't care how the hits arrive, I'll leave that to the purists.

Good luck,
Mike.

PayPal And A Money Making Credit Cards Bonus

Most of us use PayPal for receiving payments from various money making programs but a lot of bloggers don't realise that it's also a money making opportunity as well.

PayPal have an excellent Merchant Referral Bonus Programme.

Many bloggers and websites want to sell goods, products or services of some sort or other. Now if they can do this by accepting credit and debit cards it makes life much easier, and increases sales.

One aspect of the Merchant Referral Bonus Programme allows you to introduce new 'merchants' to PayPal for monetary rewards.

Each time a new merchant signs up for a PayPal Business or Premier account, via your link or banner, you'll be eligible for a Merchant Referral Bonus. This referral bonus is tied to the amount the merchant receives via PayPal's Website Payment Tools or Send Money.

You'll immediately start earning 0.5% of the new merchant's revenue.

Now this may not sound a big percentage but it can mount up, especially if you hit lucky and sign up someone who has a reasonable turnover. The percentage is paid for the first 12 months, up to a maximum figure (which is £750 in the UK).

To promote PayPal they provide a banner, a link to be used generally and a suggested email to be sent to prospective clients:

"When you signup for PayPal, you can start accepting credit card payments instantly. As the world's number one online payment service, PayPal is the fastest way to open your doors to over 150 million member accounts worldwide. Best of all, it's completely free to sign up! To sign up or learn more, click here."

There is full info on the PayPal site. If you are already a member use the 'Referrals' link at the bottom of each PayPal page, once you are logged in.

And don't forget how useful accepting credit and debit cards could be for your own blog or website - or maybe use their donations buttons to generate income.

Good luck,
Mike.

P.S. Shopping Ads: Not sure what's going on with them but have had no ads appear on my blogs for two days.

Accept Credit and Debit Cards In Just Minutes!

Payment Received From Voxant

As per my previous post regarding payment from Voxant I am pleased to say that they did as exactly as promised.

As you will see below I received my check for September earnings this morning for $126.80.


I have already made a further $200+ so hopefully the next payment will be made right on schedule.

If you are involved with Voxant my advice is to make sure that they receive the necessary paperwork regarding taxation. If you are outside of the USA you will need a form W-8 from them for completion. This has to be with them before payments are released.

Below is a Voxant 'Odd' News Item, if you are feeling hungry!

Good luck,
Mike.

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A Perfect Day - 40,350 Hits On One Blog

It was one of those days yesterday when everything went exactly right - a lucky streak if you like.

I checked out my stats and saw that one of my blogs had 2525 hits. "Great," I thought. But then I checked another of my blogs and couldn't believe what I saw. Yesterday it had 40,350 visits - in one day!

Also, though not quite as exciting, my new I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here blog had 255 hits. This is about a reality show in the UK, which hasn't started as yet. It starts in the 12th.

So lots of hits yesterday and, of course, traffic = clicks.

With Sexy Ads I normally get one sign up every three days, yesterday there were 18. I get the same ratio normally with FriendFinder but yesterday there were six sign ups. And so it went on right across the board.


It really all emphasised what I have said before that if you get the traffic you'll make money, and this is regardless of PageRank, Technorati ranking etc.

The secret to making money with blogs is traffic - full stop.

My influx of hits won't, of course, last. I like to be positive but I'm also a realist. I was just lucky yesterday but once you have achieved something you always believe that you can do the same again, or something even better.

What I did learn was that once you see extra hits arriving unexpectedly you need to monetise the post that everyone wants to read. The truth is that a majority of these visitors may never return, so it makes sense to try and get clicks while you can.

It's also a good idea to see which country the readers are arriving from and adapt ads to suit them. It's no good, for instance, having bundles of visitors from the USA if your ads are aimed at the UK. All pretty obvious I suppose.

To finish my day nicely I checked my bank account and found that Google AdSense had paid me $257.35 and that £50 ($100) had arrived from PayPal for PayPerPost sponsored posts.

All in all a good day - now if only every day was like that ...

Good luck,
Mike.

Making Money Prior To Christmas

There I was last Tuesday saying that I didn't do very well with Amazon and then, this month in five days, I've had nine orders!

This mini rush got me thinking about Christmas, which I didn't really want to do. I'm one of those people who keep saying that Christmas starts too early and should be restricted to the month of December. I never, for instance, do my own Xmas shopping until a couple of weeks before the big day but ...

... if you are in the business of making money from the holiday period you have to start early. Really you should already be up and running.

If blogs are going to make any money with products, as opposed to the likes of ads, links and reviews this is the time to try and do so.

It's the time to get going with Amazon, WidgetBucks and any of the other 'shopping' style programs. Let's face it, if you can't sell at Christmas, you are unlikely to do much the rest of the year.

Products are great if they are relative to your niche but when you have something like this blog it's not quite so easy - but we can all have a go at this time of year.

So it's time to get Amazon and WidgetBucks etc. campaigns revved up on our blogs.

The two I've mentioned both work in different ways. With Amazon affiliates get paid a percentage of any orders but with the likes of WidgetBucks, ShoppingAds etc the revenue comes from clicks. Depends what you prefer.

One thing I've noticed with WidgetBucks is that some products have much greater click values. For example, digital cameras pull in a lot more revenue per click than say movies - you'll need eight times as many movie clicks to get the same amount as one digital camera click. It's, therefore, useful to experiment with different categories to see what pulls in the most.

As regards Amazon their new(ish) Amazon Search Widget (see left hand side column) seems effective because it has a selection of products plus a search box - a double whammy.

There are a host of other affiliate and shopping programs out there. It's a matter of joining and getting on with it - while everyone is in a buying mode.

I'll mention again that WidgetBucks are still offering a $25 bonus for signing up - can't be bad!

Whatever you do.

Good luck,
Mike.

Money Making With DIY Dating

Carrying on today with money making programs I have tried. Today it's DIY Dating.

DIY Dating lets you create your own money making dating (or adult contacts) website for free. There are no set up costs or outlay.

The websites are reasonably easy to set up and there is a choice of over 30 designs from which to choose. Of course, though the website is to your design you have use of the massive database of clients that DIY have on their books. This in effect means that you have a website with millions of members profiles for prospective new members to view.

Each website you create has it's own sub-domain name. It's then up to individuals to promote this in the best way possible.

Interest is usually generated, on such sites, by offering free membership. Though this doesn't generate any profit immediately it does when/if the person upgrades for more benefits.

I personally haven't made massive profits from DIY Dating, about $150, but what I can confirm is that all payments have been made to me on time and as expected. The company deals in UK £'s, USA $'s and euros.

My earnings aren't higher only because I haven't devoted sufficient time and effort into promoting the website. This is a huge market on the Internet and, yes, there is a lot of competition but there is plenty to go round.

Commission can be as high as 80%.

A DIY Dating website is no different to any other revenue generating site, it's all about generating traffic. If you can get people looking at your site the chances are that you'll make some money. Obviously if virtually no one visits then you won't make any money.

Promotion can be by numerous means: Links from your own blog, on forums, links on other websites, adverts and ... well just about any way you can think of.

Pros
Free website
Choice of designs
No outlay
Good Commission rate
Worldwide potential
Very big market on the Internet
Massive ready made database
Commissions paid on time (in my experience)

Cons
You need traffic
Not suitable for all niches
Has to be promoted
Quite a lot of competition

Mike's Rating 4/5

Good luck,
Mike.

Pay Out Updates: AdultFriendFinder And Voxant

Just to verfiy that the Adult Friend Finder Group pay out on time here is a copy of my latest cheque from them, received today. They arrive on time, with varying amounts, every two weeks. This one is for $70.10.

The company pay out commissions, following approval, on the 1st and 16th of each month -subject to a minimum of $50 being due.


Regarding Voxant, that some readers are still asking me about. I received an email from them yesterday, the first part of which read:

"Dear Michael,

We have prepared your check for payment from TheNewsRoom, but have not yet received your tax information. In order for us to mail your check you must send or fax your tax form. Once your tax form is received, payment will be issued. Please know the check is already written so it's just a matter of sticking it in the mail when we get your tax form."

The form they refer to is as I mentioned in my previous post on this subject. I sent this by mail on October 27th so should be with them any day now. Mail takes about five days to the USA from here in the UK.

I'll keep you updated and below is one of their 'odd' category videos. It's about red pandas kissing! Ahhh!

Have a great weekend.

Good luck,
Mike

Page Rank History Plus WidgetBucks

I don't want to keep going on about PageRank - what has happened has happened and we have to get on with positive blogging.

I thought, however, that this tool may be of interest if you haven't seen it before: LivePR

There are lots of websites that give your PR but with LivePR they also give your history as well, and this is the interesting bit.

PageRank keeps on changing so it's good to keep up to date. If you look at this blog's history, as on the right, you can see I was getting along quite happily with a PR5 until the recent topsy-turvey events.

The puzzling bit for me is the number of backlinks shown. Most odd that in January the blog supposedly had nil - which is completely in error - and also how in the last couple of days, according to the figures, I've somehow lost 178 backlinks.

There's lots of other stats on LivePR as well and it might while away some time - that's if you ever have any to spare.

On a personal level the drop in this blog's PR has hit my PayPerPost earnings. All of the lovely, juicy sponsored posts worth $35 have disappeared and I'm left with a row of $5 posts - which I probably will never do.

Anyway, that's the end of me commenting on PageRank, time to move on.

I've had WidgetBucks running on two of my blogs for a couple of days. I'm a little confused as to what I've earned as the weekly, monthly, last month, this month figures seem to contradict themselves, or perhaps it's just my interpretation. I think I've made $1.46 in total!

I was going to give click rates etc. but I read in their terms that members, 'must not to disclose click-through rates or other statistics relating to Site performance in the Program provided to by Mpire'.

Just a reminder that if WidgetBucks appeals to you there is sign up bonus of $25 for joining. This means that you only have to earn another $25 to receive $50. Obviously, at the present time, I can't give an informed opinion based on experience as to how successful the program will be. I'll leave that for you to decide until I've seen how I get on.

That's all for today.

Good luck,
Mike.