Spain, Directories, Traffic and Archives

I'm off to the south of Spain for a short break. Not sure if it'll be sunny but it'll hopefully be better than here in England.

I've written a post below with a List of 40 Free Blog Directories. I think it's all self explanatory.

Following my recent post How To Get Lots Of free Traffic I had a couple of requests asking for some more info on the same subject, but more for new bloggers.

I suggest that Making Money With Free Blogs Part 2 may be of use for newbies wondering what to do to get more hits. It may also be worthwhile scrolling down this page for other posts on similar subjects.

Other popular posts in the archives include:
Lots Of Ways On How To Make Money
Seven Steps To get Anyone To Do What You Want
How To Give A Presentation Or Talk
Managing Time In The Work Place
Self Hypnosis For Wealth

That'll do! Speak to you again soon.

Best wishes,
Mike.

A List Of 40 Free Blog Directories

A list below of 40 Blog Directories, categorised by PageRank.

There is sometimes a misunderstanding about Blog Directories that they will produce lots of referrals. Unfortunately my experience is that this isn't the case. The reality is somewhat different.

So why bother to get your blog listed in these directories? My own personal philosphy is that whenever there is an opportunity to leave your blog's URL somewhere then this should be taken up.

There is a value of URL's being in lots of places, for example, when it comes to Google deciding your own blog's PageRank. Okay, there have been a few problems with a lot of money making style blogs on this front recently but it is still something to aim for.

Regarding submitting blogs to Blog Directories there are a few notes following the list.

PageRank 7
blogcatalog
GetBlogs
Eaton Webb

PageRank 6
fuelmyblog
Globe of Blogs
LS Blogs
B.Collection

PageRank 5
EmarketingBlogs
Blogdup
2-review
MyBlog2U
BlogHop
nyc bloggers New York only
SportsBlogs Sports only
Blog Directory
5 Star Blogs
PhotoBlog Photo Blogs only
High Class Blogs
Q-Blog Directory
Best Blogs Asia Asia only

PageRank 4
BlogShowOff
my blog directory
BlogHub
BritBlog UK blogs
findingblog
Grokodile
Top Blogs Adult only
Bulletize
BlogShowOff
Blog Universe
BlogBib
BlogBunch
Bigger Blogger
Blogs Rating
BlogDir

PageRank3
BlogIntro
Blog Search
iBlog Business Business only

PageRank 0
BlogStreet India
Blogadr
To the best of my knowledge all of the above offer free listings, though sometimes they have payment options as well. I always take the freebie!

The directories all work differently but some will ask for a reciprocal link and will check that this is in place prior to your blog being listed. A few may also take a short period before acceptance.

Virtually all will ask for an email address. I suggest you play safe and set up a separate email address for this purpose.

As I said at the top of the page, don't expect a flood of traffic, but it's still a worthwhile exercise.

At the time of this post all of the directories are live and the PageRanks are accurate - but times change!

Good luck,
Mike.

P.S. Also don't forget to get listed on MMMM's Other Blogs Page.

40 Blog Directories Offering Free Listings

A list below of 40 Blog Directories, categorised by PageRank.

There is sometimes a misunderstanding about Blog Directories that they will produce lots of referrals. Unfortunately my experience is that this isn't the case. The reality is somewhat different.

So why bother to get your blog listed in these directories? My own personal philosphy is that whenever there is an opportunity to leave your blog's URL somewhere then this should be taken up.

There is a value of URL's being in lots of places, for example, when it comes to Google deciding your own blog's PageRank. Okay, there have been a few problems with a lot of money making style blogs on this front recently but it is still something to aim for.

Regarding submitting blogs to Blog Directories there are a few notes following the list.

PageRank 7
blogcatalog
GetBlogs
Eaton Webb

PageRank 6
fuelmyblog
Globe of Blogs
LS Blogs
B.Collection

PageRank 5
EmarketingBlogs
Blogdup
2-review
MyBlog2U
BlogHop
nyc bloggers New York only
SportsBlogs Sports only
Blog Directory
5 Star Blogs
PhotoBlog Photo Blogs only
High Class Blogs
Q-Blog Directory
Best Blogs Asia Asia only

PageRank 4
BlogShowOff
my blog directory
BlogHub
BritBlog UK blogs
findingblog
Grokodile
Top Blogs Adult only
Bulletize
BlogShowOff
Blog Universe
BlogBib
BlogBunch
Bigger Blogger
Blogs Rating
BlogDir

PageRank3
BlogIntro
Blog Search
iBlog Business Business only

PageRank 0
BlogStreet India
Blogadr
To the best of my knowledge all of the above offer free listings, though sometimes they have payment options as well. I always take the freebie!

The directories all work differently but some will ask for a reciprocal link and will check that this is in place prior to your blog being listed. A few may also take a short period before acceptance.

Virtually all will ask for an email address. I suggest you play safe and set up a separate email address for this purpose.

As I said at the top of the page, don't expect a flood of traffic, but it's still a worthwhile exercise.

At the time of this post all of the directories are live and the PageRanks are accurate - but times change!

Good luck,
Mike.

How To Get Lots Of Free Traffic

I had a couple of questions asked about how to get lots of traffic. This came about because I mentioned that in January, on one of my blogs, I had 148753 unique visitors.


I also said about how another of my blogs managed over 40,000 hits in one day.


There is no real big secret, no magic wand - unfortunately.

As I see it there are Two Parts to getting traffic.

The first is the same as you will read everywhere. It's a matter of routine, sometimes boring, in that you do something everyday to attract more referrals.

The things usually mentioned are the likes of: leaving comments on other blogs, participating in forums, exchanging links, blog directories, writing articles, social networking, using keywords properly, publishing blog carnivals, offering a freebie on Craig's List and so on. You've no doubt read all of this before.

And, of course, you mustn't forget to make it easy for readers to subscribe with Feedburner or something similar.

This is what I call the bread and butter of blogging. It's stuff that needs to be done to create a solid foundation. If it's all done systematically it will bring traffic.

Okay so that, very briefly, is Part One.

Now we move quickly on to Part Two.

There is still no magic wand but, if Part One is the bread and butter, Part Two is the cake - iced and decorated just how you like it.

Problem is, like decorating a cake, so my wife tells me, it takes time and concentration. It's about, what those self help books call, going the extra mile. It's the newspaper exclusive scoop if you like.

You have to find something, in your niche, that people are desperate to read, something they are searching for on Google, Yahoo and so on. In other words fulfil their need.

It's also about writing something, where the content is a bit special, so other blogs will want to link to the post. Link Baiting in other words.

I'll give you an example from one of my celebrity blogs to illustrate what I mean.

Late last year George Clooney was seen with a new girlfriend Sarah Larson. All the celeb blogs had this story and it's unlikely that a newish blog would get many referrals from the name George Clooney as a keyword. The big guys are all on the Google first page.

I started, however, 'investigating' Sarah Larson. The blogs all repeated the same stuff that she was an actress and model. "So how come no one knows anything about her," I asked myself.

I hit lucky and found out that Sarah Larson had once been on a reality television show called Fear Factor. So I went back through their records year by year and, eureka, there she was in 2005 and there was a bio about her.

She had told Fear Factor that she was a Go Go Dancer in Las Vegas - and this, though it might not sound much, was my Big Story. No one else had realised this, they were all busy copying what everyone else had written.

I'd gone the extra mile!

My Big Story was only 100 words but it was dynamite because people wanted to know about Sarah's background.

It brought me in tens of thousand of hits. One link, from a big celeb website, sent me over 17,000 referrals alone.

I even had an ex-boyfriend of Sarah's contact me. I did a post about this. Again this brought lots of hits.

This was all in September 2007 and since then I've concentrated on trying to get exclusive or near exclusive stories, something that other bloggers haven't noticed. Sometimes they get lots of hits, sometimes they flop.

Oh, and I suggest always following up a Big Story with further posts on the same subject.

All of this, as I said before, takes time and effort.

With blogging you get out what you put in.

Now some other bloggers have said stuff like, "Yes but they are artificial hits, they aren't of much value."

Rubbish!! This is just negativity.

As far as I'm concerned all traffic is good traffic - even if they only arrive at the blog once - because they make me money. And that's why I'm bloggging.

It's a numbers game, though the purists won't accept this. Get some visitors and you'll make some money. Get lots of visitors and you'll make lots of money.

It all depends if you have the time, the drive and nose for a good story relative to your particular niche. It's a corny old cliche but content really is King - if it's the right content.

Concentrate on Part One but have fun with Part Two when you have time. It's worth the effort because it makes money.

Just my opinion, of course.

Good luck,
Mike.

Sarah Larson Posts:
Exclusive: Was Sarah Larson A Go Go Dancer
More Information About Sarah Larson
Exclusive: Sara Larson's Ex Boyfriend Contacts Celebrity Insider
Photos Of Sarah Larson Before She Met George Clooney
George Clooney And Sarah Larson In Accident
Sarah Larson On Crutches
Sara Larson: Is This The Look Of Love?
Sarah Larson Could Cost George Clooney $100,000

Making Money From Affiliate Programs

I have read that bloggers struggle to make money from affiliate programs, sometimes even when they have good traffic levels.

As I see it the problem is banners!

I wrote back in July 2007 Scrap Money Making Banners. I was probably being a little dramatic, for effect, because banners can have a place within blogging.

There is, however, a lot more to making money with affiliate programs than just slapping a few banners somewhere on a blog. I don't believe that this really works, or at least not to a satisfactory level.

I've messed about with various ways to make affiliate programs worthwhile and I've found that the most successful way is to include links for them within or under blog posts.

With my main earning blogs (not this one!) I try to include links to an affiliate program with every post - and these are mainly, but not always, text links. My Celebrity Insider is an example of this. There are affiliate links in all (or virtually all) of the posts on the home page.

To do this it is necessary to have suitable affiliate programs that have products relative to your particular niche. It's why organisations similar to Commission Junction or TradeDoubler are worth joining.

They both have dozens and dozens of affiliate programs under one umbrella. This means you can usually find several schemes that will be suitable for what you are mostly writing about.

Now there are also several websites that offer context advertising whereby they automatically identify and link contextually relevant phrases with your post content.

These are okay, in some cases, but I personally don't like to see too many links in a post, especially when they are in green and underlined twice! It somehow messes up the pleasure of reading something - just my opinion, of course!

But, if you control this yourself, you are more able to direct traffic to where you wish.

The con side is that it takes more effort as you have to find the relevant links within say CJ, TradeDoubler, Amazon etc yourself. I feel that this is worth the effort, time permitting.

If you are writing about a certain book or product and have links to these they must surely generate more clicks (and more money) than random links - or random big banners.

Regarding banners I think regular Internet users now overlook them as our brains have been almost programmed not to see them.

I've always found that text ads (including Google AdSense) will out perform bigger, glossier artwork. Regarding AdSense this produces more money, in my experience, than some banner ad of the same size.

Your own opinion may be different but I like to write about what my own personal experience with the hope that some of it may be of use.

Good luck,
Mike.

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

A Theoretical $1,000,000

I suppose most of us trying to make money have set ourselves targets or objectives.

The other day the importance of these as a road map to success was brought home to me by something my wife said.

I was telling her that one of my blogs had now had over half a million visitors.

"Mmmm," she said, "Just think if each of these had paid you UK£1"

"Mmmm," I thought, "That would be US$1,000,000!"

They didn't all pay me £1, of course, but it got me thinking about how to make more money out of the next half million.

"How long did it take to get the half million visitors?" my wife asked.

"About 250 days," I answered, "But the next lot won't take as long as previously this was starting from nil."

I then went to my office and started working out figures and stats and making new targets.

500,000 visitors would make:

With AdSense about $935
You can see how I arrived at this here

With Voxant about $1500
$3 for every 1000

I also worked out how long the next 500,000 would take. I reckoned about three months.

I was, therefore, up to an income of about $811.66 per month ($935 + £1500 divided by 3) from AdSense and Voxant, that's roughly $187.30 per week (for 13 weeks).

But there are also other ways to make money as well, so I did some more calculator work, and it was possible to build up a picture of where I wanted to be in 3 months time, 6 months time and so on.

And this was for just one blog.

I think it helps to do this sort of exercise now and again as it allows us to make some realistic targets - and as most references to the subject tell us - targets should be realistic and time bounded.

In other word: From Such-and-Such Blog I will make $x in one month, $xxx in three months and $xxxxx in one year.

Working out how much a blog has made, and is likely to make, also gives a clear indication as to whether it is a viable money making project.

With any money making venture it's no good, as they say, flogging a dead horse. If something isn't working it's time for radical change or to move on to something else. There are, after all, dozens and dozens of ways to make money.

None of the above applies, however, if you are just into blogging for the fun and entertainment it can bring. It all depends on why we blog.

Enjoy your blogging! It's what is really important.

Good luck,
Mike.

DIY Dating. Get your own free dating website and make excellent commission.

Research Your Way To Riches

When I was thinking about starting my very first blog I read what a lot of the 'experts' had to say on the matter. They all seemed to agree that bloggers should decide on a specific niche.

"Write about what you are interested in and know about - about - about," they echoed.

So that's why I started Mike's Money Making Mission - because I had previously published a money making magazine for ten years. I followed their advice in other words.

But, you know, those experts aren't really right in what they preach, and most churn out the same old party line.

As an extreme example supposing your main interest is: The combined wit and wisdom of Tony Blair and George Bush. Okay, it's unlikely, but lets pretend.

So you set up your blog about the handsome duo but there would problems in two ways.

(1) Their combined wit and wisdom could be written on a single page - alright half a page.

(2) How many people would actually want to read this? It's a bit of a limited market.

Yes, you've followed the experts advice but it's not going to work out too good because:

(a) There isn't sufficient subject matter to write 300+ posts a year and
(b) There aren't enough people interested in the subject.

This means, no matter how hard you try, it's doubtful if you will succeed - and there's even less chance of making any decent money.

So much for experts!

When thinking about a niche what we should do - if we want a decent readership and/or make money - is to choose something that a lot of people want to read about. There's no reason why this has to be something that interests you or is something that you know about.

I didn't realise this at first. It was only when I started to seriously think about what many people really wanted to read that I started to make worthwhile money.

Nope, you don't make a lot of money with money making blogs!

I started to make decent money once I set up my celebrity blogs - giving people what they want to see and read.

I didn't have a clue about celebrities when I started - honest! I obviously knew a few film star and music names but that was it. I never read all of the gossip about who's doing what and to whom and so on.

I've learned a lot since about how the celeb media and tabloids work - it's all a big game - and it's this that has made me money. Because it's what a lot of people want to read about - sorry, if I'm sounding like a stuck parrot!

I'm not for one minute suggesting that you should start up a celebrity blog. All I'm saying is that, if you are looking for a niche, pick one that interests a lot of people - and not necessarily something that you are personally interested in.

There's a mountain of information out there, on almost any subject, so you can research your way to riches.

Good luck,
Mike.

Celebrity Insider - Photos & News: Gossip, news and photos about worldwide celebs.

How Big Are Your Posts?

So how long should a blog post be?

I used to ponder over this when I started blogging. I figured blogging people were busy people and that few of them had time to wade through masses of text.

I think a lot of us are skimmers when it comes to blog posts. By this I mean that we quickly look through what is written to see if it's worth the effort of reading it all. Sometimes perhaps we just pick out any obvious highlights or points of interest.

My own conclusion is that for an average blog post 300 to 600 words is about the right balance.

There are always exceptions, of course. You might have something special to write, such as a 'how-to' article, and this might well need something longer.

Conversely if the message can be said in fewer words why pad it out.

I know some bloggers who prefer to write one or two lengthy tomes each week instead of smaller ones daily.

It all boils down to whether you think you can keep the reader interested in the subject you are writing about.

One way in doing this is to keep paragraphs short. I always glaze over when I see a post with few, or even without, paragraphs.

The use of images also helps. Anything to break up something that may otherwise look boring.

It's all about giving something for the reader to think about. So ... how many words do you think a blog post should have?

Good luck,
Mike.

Proof Of What A Big Joke Wealth Toolbox Is

Wealth Toolbox! I get more emails about this than anything else at the moment - plus my posts on this so called program still get a lot of reads.

I've said it several times before but - do not waste your time getting involved with this. You won't make any money.

First they said they would give everyone $50 and this would be invested on the members' behalf. My amount soon shot up to $350+. Unfortunately some bloggers took this to be serious and I saw it included on money they had made in a month.

I'm sure that they now realise this was a load of old tosh.

Wealth Toolbox have changed the system and guess what? It was necessary to re-join. Okay, fair enough but most people simply couldn't re-join. Every name they (and I) chose was deemed to have been used already. I even tried names such as 'zjglqwrx' but miraculously someone had already beaten me to it!

Of course what this meant was that my $350+ was lost. Now isn't that a surprise! I did previously warn that there wasn't a cat's chance in hell in that any money would be paid out.

I could still, however, join the Wealth Toolbox new system by simply using a name and a password. So I did out of interest.

My 'account' was credited with $5 but within minutes shot upwards to $8 and then more. Wow! This guy sure knows how to make money in his dreams!

But, oh dear! I went to see how my money was progressing today and guess what? The system has been changed again already and that money has also been lost.

Determined as ever I tried to join the new third version.

I used an obscure email address and name but couldn't gain admittance. I had to check my email for an acceptance code to click on. I did this but the code they provided was invalid!

It will be interesting to see what future emails I get to this email address.

My advice again: don't touch Wealth Toolbox with a bargepole, or anything else. Even giving an email address may not be to your advantage.

Move on to something honest that will make some real money but, before you do, here's proof of what a big joke Wealth Toolbox really is.

The founder is/was supposedly a guy called Jason Steele.

In the present guff on the Wealth Toolbox website there are 7 supposed reasons as to why you should join Wealth Toolbox.

Number 5 states: Last year I earned over $100,000 on the Internet and quit my day job. This I presume is Jason Steele talking.

So he made $100,000. If it were true, and done honestly, not too bad but ...

In the first incarnation of Wealth Toolbox he was saying how he 'made $15,572 ... in less than 30 minutes.' This was part of his Forex Power Strategy Course that members could join for $495 - you can see the details here. Unfortunately the video, that goes with the info. has been removed - surprise, surprise!

So here's a man that, with the original Wealth Toolbox, was giving everyone hundreds of dollars, which I worked out would have run into millions in total - if he'd have had to pay out. And don't forget that he can also make $15,000+ in minutes and can tell others how to do this (at a price) but ...

... he only makes $100,000 a year!

It's all fantasy land.

Sorry, I went on a bit longer than I intended!

Here's some of the other stuff I've written about Wealth Toolbox:

Feb 25 2007: Money Making Test Warning About Wealth Toolbox
Apr 19 2007: Six Questions To Ask About Wealth Toolbox

Good luck,
Mike.

P.S. Further to my last post RealRank Is RealUseless Real Rank's lead developer has left a comment. Perhaps this may be of interest.

RealRank is RealUseless

RealRank had a RealProblem which left me RealMad.

On Tuesday I couldn't get into my celebrity blog and nor, it appears, could anyone else. I obviously wasn't happy with this, especially when I saw that my hits count was nearly 2000 down on what was expected.

I had no idea what was wrong, I'm no web designer.

To cut a long story short I went back to basics with my blog's template and removed everything I had added myself - photos, ads, tweeks, widgets and so on. The blog would then load okay.

Gradually, checking all the time, I added what I had taken off. The blog kept on loading until I entered the RealRank code. I established that: if the code was on the template the blog could not be seen by visitors, if it was deleted everything was okay.

Problem sort of solved - though it had taken me about two hours. I simply left off the RealRank code.

Next day, Wednesday, I emailed RealRank for an explanation. This was the reply I got:

"Hi Mike,
Thanks for reaching out to us. Our Dev team became aware of this issue last night in trying to reconfigure the code to report views faster.

Dev is currently working on a fix for this issue. Here are links to our Izea Blog and the boards which contain more information about this issue.

All the Best,
Carri"

Okay, but ...

(1) I wasn't 'reaching out' (what a stupid expression this is) I was frankly pi**ed off.

(2) I didn't see the words 'sorry' or 'apology' anywhere. After all, because of them I had the lowest days traffic figures and AdSense clicks etc of the year.

(3) If it was known this was happening on blogs why weren't we emailed with the info. I shouldn't have thought many people would have read the 'board' entry, which was dated Wednesday the day I, and others, had the problem. Well it's obvious why they wouldn't have done this - hush it up, don't rock the boat.

As for their 'boards' the latest relevant post includes the following:

"Basically the ITK code needs to be placed in the body of the web page on your site for the bug to not rear it's head. We think that's unacceptible and are working out our own solution to Microsoft's problems. In the meantime we're rolling back the ITK code to the earlier version so that the crashes IE users are experiencing go away."

So there you go.

PageRank stats haven't been accurate either, as I mentioned on an update on January 21st.

I haven't re-entered, or even tried, to enter the RealRank code - even if it has been 'rolled back' as they say.

What I'd really like is assurances that:

(a) RealRank stats are accurate.
(b) The code won't stop visitors arriving at my blog.

Otherwise RealRank is RealUseless.

Such is the blogging life - you've got to smile!

Good luck,
Mike.

Celebrity Insider - Photos & News: Photos, news, gossip snippits on celebs.

Money Making Blog Space

A few Pancake Day updates and thoughts - but about money making and not pancakes!

WidgetBucks.
Pleased to confirm that I have now had a payment from WidgetBucks. Only $64.31, but I also managed over the $50 payout figure for January so there should be another payment due this time next month. It's tough going though.

I've had lots of page impressions but the CPM rate is pretty grim. Example: 17725 page impressions, amount earned 27c. That's about 1.5 cents per 1000 - as I said, grim!

WidgetBucks say, about us non US and Canada residents, that we can now specify categories of ads. But will this improve CPM rate? To quote WidgetBucks:

"Because we just rolled out this change, it's difficult to estimate the exact increase in CPM but we will provide some trend insight on this over the next couple of weeks."

I'm not convinced as to the viability of WidgetBucks as a money maker for non USA or Canadian residents. I'll stick with it for a few more weeks.

Amazon.com
I made a big thing in my previous post about how I had switched to Amazon.com as opposed to Amazon.uk.

Amazingly, since then, I have had two orders - but for Amazon.uk! Not a sausage from Amazon.com.

Again I'm not convinced about Amazon as a money maker. The commission rate is low and the ratio of orders per click also seems low. Not exactly a good combination.

I'm going to have a good go with this affiliate program for this month and then decide if I should dedicate space (and time) to something more profitable.

General thoughts
Blog space dedicated to ads and products is our shop window, our retail space if you like, and it has to prove effective. It's so easy to continue with the same old format but now and again it's necessary to stand back and ask, "Is my retail space being used to maximum efficiency?"

If not then we have to change.

Though Amazon and WidgetBucks aren't too hot for me I fortunately do have some good revenue providers. What I keep thinking though is, "What if I could get all of my space working to the same high level?"

The answer to that, of course, is easy: I'd make a lot more money - and that's the name of the game.

Good Luck,
Mike.

Flying Saucer Review: Worldwide reports on UFOs.

A Bad Taste Amazon Moment

I've been reviewing some of the ways I make money with blogs. I've been doing the stats and seeing which programs are worthwhile and which ones should be ditched.

One I have been considering dropping is Amazon. I've only made about £18 ($36) in total and payout isn't until the earnings are more than £50 ($100). Then it struck me what I'm still doing wrong.

"Doh!"

I'm with Amazon.uk but only 13% of my traffic comes from the UK, whereas 64% arrives from North America. The obvious solution is, therefore, to join Amazon.com as well. So that's what I have just done.

I'll keep Amazon.uk for UK orientated blogs and for the rest I'll have a go with Amazon.com. It all works pretty much the same from what I can see.

In theory this should make a difference. I made only £8.47 ($16.94) in January from Amazon and this mostly arrived via my Celebrity Insider blog.

As the celeb blog had about 150,000 unique visitors during the month and 13% (from UK) made me $16.94 then 64% (from USA) should make me about $83 if my mathematics is right - and providing the click rate remains the same. Okay it's still not exactly a good return compared with, for example, AdSense and Voxant but it is still an improvement. I've also been trying to think up ways to increase the clicks.

And that's what I've been doing on this wet, dull afternoon. I've been having a fresh look at Amazon. They sell some strange stuff and a lot of products I wasn't aware of. I tend to think books, DVDs, CDs but there's much more.

Here's a few examples from Amazon.com - some are of poor taste!

1. Uranium Ore. Never know when it might come in handy.

2. UFO Detector. They are out there - make contact.

3. Inflatable Wife. If you've got the puff.

4. Spiderman Pet Costume. Fancy dress for pets.

5. Four Bottles of Liquid Ass Fart Spray. I said some were of poor taste!

6. Silk Micro G-String Thong Rings Panty. Live in hope.

7. Artificial Insemination Kit. The title says it all.

8. Wedding Chapel - 10 x 18 With Wood Roof. Expensive but it's a quality item for when you want to get hitched.

9. Heinz Spotted Dick Pudding, 10-Ounce Cans (Pack of 6). Food of the Gods.

10. The Celebrity Black Book 2008: Over 55,000 Accurate Celebrity Addresses . Get in touch with those celebs.

And much more besides.

I'll let you know if Amazon.com proves more successful.

Good luck,
Mike.
And for UK readers:

January Money Making

That's the first month of the year ticked off.

I think January went pretty well. As I said last month I'm not going to say how much I have earned any more, for various reasons, but these are a few of the programs that sent me money:

Google AdSense
Some people knock AdSense but I find it a good, reliable earner. Plus the money is paid direct to my bank account, on time, every month. Yes, there are alternatives but why rock the boat when something works. The reality though, with any of these sort of programs, is that you need a decent amount of traffic to receive a worthwhile amount.

FriendFinder Group
This isn't for everyone but I get checks every month from them. They are a big, reliable affiliate program with dozens of websites (Christian and Friendship to Adult and Bondage!) to promote.

Voxant Newsroom
I'm doing well with Voxant because of my good celebrity blog traffic. They pay $4* per 1000 on news videos that run automatically. Yes, these can be annoying but on one blog alone I had around 150,000 visitors in January, so the sums add up nicely.

Sexy Ads
Another one that's not for everyone but I find they are very efficient and have good promotional material - providing you have the right sort of blog/visitors. Checks arrive on time.

PayPal
This is the method I use for any direct advertising or reviews. I then withdraw the money monthly which makes the bookkeeping easy for tax - and all that other horrible stuff!

Convergence Inc
For over 18's only. It's adult products but I can get away with advertising this on some of my celebrity blogs. Convergence will set up anyone with a free website. It's big percentage commission and they pay out when they say they will.

So that's the money bit. As far as vistors go it's been an excellent January. I slightly missed out on the target I set myself for Celebrity Insider but managed 148,753 unique vistors for the month according to extreme tracking but over 160,000 if I look at Icerocket stats.

Regarding Mike's Money Making Mission the following were the Top 5 Referrering Blogs. Other websites, search engines etc may have sent more traffic but I appreciate the help given by other blogs. My thanks to the following plus all blogs that have sent me referrals - see my MMMM Links Page.

Top Blog Referrers
1.
Make Money Fa$t
2.
Web-Dosh
3.
My quest to make money on the Internet
4.
Money Money Money
5.
Active Duty Military Money and Matters
That's it for now. It's been a hard day for my wife and I because of what happened this time last year.

Good luck,
Mike.

* Update: I have just seen that the rate per 1000 has been reduced with Voxant to $3 from today (Feb 1 2008)