The Stats Of Making Money With Penthouse

As regular readers know I'm an affiliate for the FriendFinder Group and have made money from their various websites. I estimate that my next check from them, for August, will be around $250.

A while back they were bought by the Penthouse Media Group. Because of this I've been having a go at promoting their Penthouse website on my celebrity blogs. Obviously this isn't suitable for all blogs as it is adult orientated.

I haven't done all that well but thought I'd share a few statistics to show what it takes to make money from Penthouse. This way you can decide if it is a worthwhile money making program as far as you are personally concerned.

Statistics
Since promoting the site I have had 2177 clicks and of these 117 have signed up for free entry, so that's one sign up per 18.6 clicks.

Of the 117 of the free sign ups, two have actually parted with money and therefore earned me commission. That's one paying member for every 58.5 free sign ups.

Another statistic would be one paying member for every 1088.5 people who click on the Penthouse website from my ads.

So is that good or not?

I'll let you decide. My commission (for the two sales) has been $70.

What Can You Earn
The commission per order is $35, or you can choose a Percentage option. There is also a Broker Program that offers 10% of webmasters commission, who you sign up, for life.

It's the Broker Program that really interests me most as this is easy/easier money. See my post How To Make Money With Your Feet Up On The Desk.

Do I recommend Penthouse?
Well yes, but mainly because, if you do sign up, you can also promote all of the other websites they have within the FriendFinder Group (owned by Penthouse). That's 25+ money making opportunities. Just think if you had affiliates earning you money on all of those websites - now that would be profitable!

Good luck,
Mike

Making Money On Blogs With Your Own Products

As you may have read in previous posts I've been playing around with various money making programs and reporting on them.

Then Matt Jones left a comment saying, "If you need something to promote, why not create and sell your own product?"

And Matt is absolutely right. Why flog someone elses stuff when you can make more money promoting your own products?

I think this idea goes right across the board of blogging. You could also ask yourself, for example: Why run AdSense ads when you could run your own? Why do sponsored posts through a third party when you could do your own?

The more this idea goes around in the mind the better it gets.

I do take ads direct on my celebrity blogs, and all of the profit is mine, but I must admit I haven't promoted any of my own 'products'.

Own products work. I know this from my magazine publishing days when I used to sell all sorts of manuals. Some of these were written by me and with others I bought the resale rights.

I know that How To information is big business and enormously profitable. The added beauty is that once you have created your manual / guide / ebook, or whatever, you have this for life.

In other words the same material can be reproduced for many years with perhaps just a few updates to keep everything current.

I used to have a portfolio of manuals and How To books, dozens and dozens of them, which I sold over and over again. When I felt they were getting a bit tired I then sold the reprint rights to others for added income.

So I think that Matt has really hit the nail on the head.

It's fine to promote various affiliate and PPC programs but just think if all of the profits were yours and yours only.

This doesn't mean that this is a quick way to riches. All blogs need the same basics to succeed. The main one being traffic. Quality traffic.

Own products - food for thought.

Good luck,
Mike.

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Some You Win Some You Lose In the Money Making Game

Grim!

On my post eBay and Half.com Money Making Trial I said that I had replaced AdSense with eBay and Half.com ads as a test on one of my blogs.

How silly was that!

I guess I really knew what to expect, even though the trial only lasted three days. As I've often said: most banner ads and widgets are a waste of time. Text ads produce far more clicks and make more money.

The AdSense ads, on the celebrity blog I carried out the trial, got around 70 clicks on a bad day. With the eBay and Half.com ads, in the same positions, they produced 5 clicks on a good day.

Needless to say I'm back to using the prime positions for AdSense again now.

As I see it the reality is that, unless banner ads tie in with the subject matter of a blog, they are very ineffective. The only exceptions appear to be:

(1) If they are contextual i.e. they are relevant to the blog's niche.

(2) They have a general, preferably worldwide, appeal. I put things like dating, friendship and contacts in this category - these seem to work well for me without being relevant to the blog's main niche.

I'm still rummaging about, however, for some additional worthwhile money making programs for my blogs. When I find any, which I haven't previously mentioned, I'll let you know.

Good luck,
Mike.

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Ebay and Half.com Money Making Trial

As I have mentioned previously I have been looking to find a few replacement money making programs or affiliate schemes for poor performing ones.

My search found quite a few that were, to put it mildly, absolute rubbish so I turned to a few of the big established names, one of these being eBay and their sister website half.com.

It was easy enough to join and my application was accepted on the same day.

The good thing is that I can now promote eBay in 12 different countries from USA and UK to Spain and India and many in between.

It's interesting though that commission rates are different for individual countries some far superior to others. Adverts can be geo-targeted so that the right eBay pops up relevant to where the visitor resides.

As regards half.com this is for the USA only and offers such products as CD's for half price plus things like text books, cameras etc all at huge savings.

Is there any money in promoting such a well known name as eBay?

I don't know but I'm going to give it a test drive on Celebrity Insider - Photos & News. I've taken off AdSense and replaced it with eBay and half.com so that I can do a proper comparison.

I'll let you know how I get on. If I'm honest I think that it will probably 'cost' me money instead of making any. If I had to bet I'd say that AdSense out performs eBay, but we shall see.

Good luck,
Mike.

An SEO Agency Helps Website Success

Whatever sort of website we publish one of our aims is always to attain better search engine rankings. It is an essential part of being successful as quality referrals equate to bigger profits.

An SEO Agency, such as WebMetro, can help make websites friendlier to the search engines. They have, in fact, been doing this for the last eleven years and have secured literally thousands of first page rankings for webmasters.

They can create high performance Internet marketing campaigns and turn around under performing ones plus, of course, can ensure that once successful they remain that way.

Take a look at the WebMetro website and you'll find lots of interesting information and a whole range of services - you'll even find a useful SEO Keyword Rank Checker for Google to try out.

In Praise Of Text Over Widgets For Making Money

I want to carry on a little more today on the theme I started in my previous post regarding adverts in widgets.

Following the post Dean Jutilla of Widget Bucks was good enough to leave a comment. It really emphasised my belief that most widget style adverts aren't of value to the average blog unless the products shown tie in exactly with the subject matter of the blog.

I mentioned that camera ads would be okay for a photography blog, for example, but put those same ads on a general blog and making money from them would be virtually negated.

As Dean wrote: "... you are 100% correct, the more contextual the ad, the better the performance. These ads are a tough go on affiliate marketing sites ..."

Space is valuable on a blog so has to be put to the best use.

As I see it the majority of widget style ads and banner ads in general are a waste of space unless used properly. If they aren't contextual the space should perhaps be filled with something else - even dear old AdSense.

At least with AdSense the ads tie in reasonably well to the blog's niche providing you don't wander to far from the subject. I remember once writing about the traffic exchange program Blog Soldiers in depth and ending up with military adverts! (Note: Blog Soldiers is not compatible with AdSense).

Affiliate programs aren't just a matter of joining and then slapping the banner ads on a blog. It doesn't work like that unfortunately, it's not that easy.

We have to 'know' what our readers are more likely to click on and give them the right ads to do so.

I saw that on one of my blogs yesterday all of the clicks on ads were on AdSense - the other ads were ignored. This means I need to do some work on that blog and find more appropriate ads to run alongside AdSense.

I still feel that the most productive money making advertising is text within a post.

Good luck,
Mike.

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Money Making Summer Spring Clean

Now and again I look at various money making programs, which I have running on my blogs, and decide if they are actually worth continuing with. A sort of Spring clean but this time in Summer.

One I'm about to remove from most of my blogs is WidgetBucks who, as far as I'm concerned, have always underperformed.

Take last month, with their CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions) my return was poor.

On the blogs I ran Widget Bucks, in June, I had 48,119 page impressions and this made me the princely sum of $7.04 and for what they call 'International Impressions' I had further 28,666 impressions which made me a derisory 30c.

This definitely isn't a good return.

Now a lot of nice things have been written about WidgetBucks, sometimes by high earning bloggers, though I notice that one who praises is also sponsored by them. Hmmmm.

One important aspect, at least to me, is that by removing their widgets one of my celeb blogs now loads much, much quicker. The widgets made the blog very sluggish to load which I found annoying. So that's a definite bonus.

As I have written before I don't really rate widgets in general as money makers whether they be from WidgetBucks, Amazon or whoever.

As I see it they only make money if the widget ads tie in exactly with a defined niche. Cameras on Photography blogs for example. On blogs such as this and indeed my celebrity blogs they don't work to any worthwhile level.

Again, as I've said previously, I feel the best earners on general non specific blogs are text ads, especially if these are included in posts.

Going back to WidgetBucks, in fairness I must add that I have received $172.21 from them but this is over an eight month period and includes a $25 signing on bonus. Also they say on their blog that there will now be 'more revenue from European traffic.'

Now, of course, I need to find another good money maker as a replacement, and probably for Voxant as well. Any suggestions? If so please leave info in the comments - thanks.

Good luck,
Mike.

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How To Make Money With Your Feet Up On The Desk

A long time ago I was a young manager of a finance and loans company. I was working all hours and one day the Regional Director asked me why.

At the time I thought this was a strange question as I obviously wanted to make my office successful. He went on to explain how it isn't what you do yourself that matters, but what you get others to do that's important. In other words you delegate.

He actually said he wouldn't mind if he came into my office unexpectedly and I was sitting with my feet up on my desk doing nothing - providing, of course, that the figures and stats were good.

This was an important lesson to me and this older, very experienced director taught me a lot about business and life in general.

Okay, what's this got to do with making money from blogging?

I've said before that I don't make as much money out of Mikes Money Making Mission as I do some of my other blogs. And that's true, but only partially true.

I also make money out of MMMM because other bloggers sometimes sign up to affiliate and money making programs that I mention. On these I get a commission. So it's really a case of what that director said, in as far as getting others to 'work' for you. This can make money and sometimes more than what you directly do yourself.

For example there's no way I could make money with something like FrenchFriendFinder and KoreanFriendFinder. I don't have sufficient visitors from those countries, but what I have managed to do is introduce affiliates living in France and Korea.

I'm also making money in the same way with similar programs such as JewishFriendFinder and SeniorFriendFinder. I have referred affiliates in those niches.

When we join any money making or affiliate program there is usually an option to be able to refer others into the business. This is sometimes something that many bloggers overlook.

If, however, you look at any of the well known big money makers you'll notice that they are always mentioning various money makers with appropriate links.

It's not necessarily what you do yourself, it's what others can do for you. So put your feet up and earn some money!

Good luck,
Mike.

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The Two Secrets Of Making Money With Free Blogs

Sometimes I think SEO experts talk a load of codswallop and I must admit I've preached similar stuff on this blog. The fact is though that there are only two secrets to building a successful money making blogs.

Yes, I've read/preached about inbound links, leaving comments on other blogs, social networking, syndicating articles, exchanging links, promotions and so on. You know the usual advice if you've been blogging for a while. Everyone says the same thing and then regurgitates it perhaps with a slightly different format.

But really you don't need these things. At least I found out by accident that you don't.

I started a blog, never did any promotional work (other than putting links to it on some of my other blogs), never left any comments on other blogs, never exchanged or tried to get inbound links etc. etc.

But, despite this, the blog has done okay and has earned me money. Sure other blogs may have more hits but this one has only been running for about six months. Here's the last weeks traffic chart.


So what are these two big secrets?

(Secret 1) Publish text and/or images that people really want to read.
(Secret 2) Use the right Keywords.

You might be thinking, "So that's it? No way!"

However these two things are paramount - in my opinion, of course - to anything else in creating a successful blog that will make money. They might sound a bit disappointing but if you think about it, they really are all important.

Let's take Secret 1.
I've previously harped on about this but it's no good having the best writing skills and accurate grammar and prose if nobody wants to read what you write. So the niche you choose is all important. It must be popular - I am talking about making money with blogs here.

You have to find material that people want to read and will be searching for on the search engines. If neither of these apply to your subject matter then it's doubtful if you'll make much money or attract many hits easily.

Also included in this secret is the suggestion that you should write lots of posts and cover a wide variety of topics within your chosen niche. I'd suggest churning out quality posts, perhaps four, five, six a day when the blog is brand new. This gives a wider range of possible searches.

And with Secret 2.
The keywords have to tie in with the subject matter of each post and with the general theme of your blog. Look also for long tail words and phrases. You want to cover as many options as possible that may be used for searches.

From what I've experienced if you use these two things then traffic will come your way plus the money making that goes with it.

"Ah," you might say, "But what if you also followed the standard SEO advice as well, wouldn't that get even better results?"

And the truthful answer is probably. 'Yes.'

It's surprising though that if you follow Secrets 1 and 2 how the search engines will pick up your posts and images and will send you traffic. You'll also most likely get inbound links as well from other bloggers who like, and also need, what you have written.

To sum up: posts that people want to read plus using keywords correctly are the way to make money with blogs. All of the other SEO advice and tricks are the icing on the cake.

Good luck,
Mike.

Making Love Every Day Leads To Publishing A Book!

After a great holiday walking in Austria it's back to reality today. Things ticked over okay while I was away and it was good to see payments had arrived from AdSense, Voxant, CC Bill and Web Entertainment. Was hoping for a few more but no doubt they will follow soon.

Haven't had a lot of time to see what's happening in the blog money making world but I did read about Charla Muller today in the UK Daily Mail newspaper.

Charla has a blog on her website which is built around a book she has had published. And the book came about because of a unique (well I think it probably is) birthday present she gave her husband Brad on his 40th birthday.

The present? Charla told her husband that his present was going to be sex with her every day for a year.

Now don't get the wrong idea the book, 365 Nights: A Memoir Of Intimacy, isn't some sort of sex manual it's more about their relationship and the stuff that gets in the way of making love for a typical married couple with children.

At one point though Charla does write amusingly about 'wanting to multi task while having sex!' She said, "I actually wanted to talk to him while we were doing it. I didn't see anything wrong with discussing the baby sitter - but Brad wasn't having any of it."

I mention the book and Charla mainly because (a) she has a blog but (b), more importantly, it illustrates how one good idea, something a bit different, can lead on to other things - which in turn can make money.

A birthday present that leads to publishing a book. Wonder what sort of other unusual slants other bloggers can think up.

There are ideas and money out there just waiting to be discovered.

Oh yes, and I have a birthday coming up this month ...

Good luck,
Mike.

365 Nights: A Memoir Of Intimacy is also available in the UK from Amazon

Top 10 Most Read Posts For June

These are Mike's Money Making Mission's most read posts for June. It's interesting, at least to me, that several of them are over one year old. It emphasises the value of a back catalogue of posts. They can keep on being picked up by the search engine's for years - if they have the right keywords.
Top Ten Most Read Posts For June
1
How To Get 90% Discounts
On Amazon Products
2
How To Make Money With
Chain Letters
3
List Of 40 Free Blog Directroies
4
Money Making With Free Blogs
Part 1
5
Lots Of Ways On How To Make Money
6
Money Making Experiment
Yields 46% Increase
7
PayPal And Money Making Credit Cards
8
Money Making With Free Blogs
Part 2
9
Making Money With Free Blogs
The Truth
10
Google Referrals:
Are They An Improvement?
I'm still on holiday in Austria!

Good luck,
Mike.