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.