To all money makers you have just today and tomorrow to sign up for the innovative new advertising program from PayPerPlay. With this new program you don't need to get clicks to make money from your website or blog. Instead you will insert code to serve up audio ads from Net Audio Ads and will be payed for the times your ads play. The audio ads are relevant and play for 5 seconds, meaning this program gives you a 100% conversion rate for site visitors. It can't get much easier than that to profit from your blog or site!
Signing up to become an affiliate before February 1, 2008 is especially imperative. PayPerPlay will not be offering its free affiliate program after this date, so make sure to take advantage of it in the next few days. After February 1, the program will only offer money in a "host only" capacity, meaning you can only profit from placing ads on your site and not from referring new members.
There's three tiers by which the Net Audio Ads affiliate program will pay you:
Tier 1 - Get paid for ads on your site. And/or
Tier 2 - Get paid on ads served on the websites of those that you personally refer, and
Tier 3: Get paid on ads served on the websites of those that your direct referrals refer.
Don't let a money making opportunity slip away in the coming days. Become an affiliate with Net Audio Ads prior to February 1, 2008 so you can start to really monetize your website or blog!
1/30/08
Monetize with Net Audio Ads
1/28/08
Should You Game Entrecard?
I like Entrecard and what it can do to help a blog out, but I'm a bit perplexed over one aspect. The Monetizer is trying to figure out why bloggers will spend an entire day trying to game Entrecard. I've recommended the widget and still continue to recommend it to bloggers. I recently helped a friend who was looking to get his blog going and Entrtecard was one of the first things I had him sign up for and set up. He was impressed at how fast his stats have risen, and I explained it's the EC card droppers. It's a nice traffic boost for a blog and a good free advertising method. But you've also probably noticed there's blogs on EC that cost way too many credits for a day spot on them. I respect all bloggers doing their thing and trying to get noticed. It's really too bad for those people that are forking out tons of credits for overpriced blog ad space. It really forces you to do your research or just gamble on an ad spot. That said, there is the possibility that you can spend 20 credits and get a better deal than 350 would with some blogs.
My recommendation to those that are trying to game Entrecard is that you're really wasting time and efforts by doing that. I'm not saying don't use Entrecard or that it doesn't help. But shoot to get your blog into the search engines if you want to realize more traffic and increase monetization. Once you start finding keywords to target and start getting traffic to those posts, you'll feel much better and won't be working as hard afterwards. Wouldn't you rather be able to make money off things like Adsense while sleeping, instead of spending your day trying to get into the "Most Popular" section on Entrecard?
With that said, why game Entrecard when you can easily enter the "Hit 777 EC's With the Monetizer" contest here? You'll spend minimal time and effort to win 777 credits which can help advertise your blog all over the place!
1/26/08
EC Contest, BloggingZoom, Chow & Sex Sells!
For those who haven't entered yet, the "Hit 777 EC's with the Monetizer" contest is still running! A lucky winner will be chosen February 1st. There's been enough entrants so far to provide the prize, but there's still under a week left to get your shot at hitting it big! Check out the contest details here and get entered so you can do some clever advertising with EntreCard!
Unfortunate news was provided by Courtney Tuttle that Blogging Zoom was hacked a few days ago. It appears the site is back up and running now and has a very stylish Web 2.0 look to it. If you aren't registered yet, please head over and check out BloggingZoom. It's a great site to promote your content and network with other bloggers!
On a side note I've noticed recently that John Chow definitely realizes the importance of "sex sells". He has several recent posts about booth babes including an interesting video showing the power of his camera's Zoom feature. Gary Conn has an article discussing how female bloggers definitely have an advantage these days due to the whole sex appeal aspect. Check out Gary's article titled "Female Bloggers, Search Engine Marketing and Sex". I've always told female friends they need to start blogging!
A final rant is that the Monetizer has noticed tons of conflicting theories around the blogosphere. Do this, do that. You can't do this, you won't make money, etc etc. Some bloggers talk about not revealing your strategies and ideas online, because it's not in your best interest. Others say there aren't enough blogs saying "how to make money" or what to do. I say take all advice you get from blogs online with a grain of salt. Remember that blogs aren't exactly newspapers, and even newspapers have been known to sensationalize and skew stories. It's hard to call any blogger an authority per se, because there's some people who've achieved greater successes, but still others who provide great, useful ideas. Learn all you can and experiment on your own, sometimes you can come up with winning ideas that way!
(Note: Make sure to sign up for Ximmy.com if you haven't yet. It's a great place to share content URL's and vote, similar to Digg.com. However, this site pays for your time and effort!)
1/24/08
Make Money at Ximmy.com!
It's the Monetizer, here with yet another way for you to make money online. It's called Ximmy.com and the best way to describe it is: a money making version of Digg. With Ximmy, you are able to submit your articles, images and content. You can also comment on various items such as articles and images. You get a point for each comment you make, and you can score as many as 15 points for making it onto Ximmy's front page with your content. So you rack up points on the site, and then with enough points, you get paid to PayPal.
Here's the way points are earned:
1 point - Story Submitted
1 point - Comment
15 points - Popular (homepage)
Points Rewards
Points for cash:
1,000 $10
1,800 $20
3,200 $40
6,000 $80
12,000 $160
20,000 $300
Pretty simple concept, but it gets better.
Ximmy also offers an affiliate program. With this program you start off with $5.00 for signing up, and then are given 50 cents for each referral you send to Ximmy.com. Once your account gets to $25 you will be paid to your PayPal. This includes all of the actions described above: submitting content, commenting, making the front page, sending referrals. They are prompt to update you when you refer someone and it reflects the added revenue in your account.
As always, I look to as many possible money makers online to add to my income stream. Ximmy.com seems a bit easier to profit from in comparison to a site like Yuwie, which involves a lot of work to build up your moneymaking network.
For those interested, head over to sign up with Ximmy.com!
1/23/08
Creflo Dollar's Moneymaking Ministry
There was an interesting news piece about Dr. Creflo A. Dollar on ABC a few nights ago. If you haven't heard of Dr. Dollar (no lie, the last name is real), he's the founder of two churches: World Changers Church International in Georgia with 30,000 members and World Changers Church-New York which hosts over 6,000 members. According to his bio on the Creflo Dollar Ministries site, "Dr. Dollar is committed to bringing the good news of Jesus Christ to people all over the world, literally changing the world one person at a time." His churches bring in millions of dollars annually, and Creflo enjoys an affluent lifestyle that he tells most church members they deserve and can achieve. In fact, he has stated that Jesus did not arrive to the Earth poor.
Creflo's latest book is called 8 Steps to Create the Life You Want: The Anatomy of a Successful Life (Faithwords)
I don't look to preach religion or politics here at the Monetizer blog, but Creflo Dollar's story does show a few points.
1) You can build wealth through strong religious faith.
2) You can build wealth by pitching religion to others.
I would never suggest monetizing religion, although there was a report not long ago that millions of bibles sold in 2007. Quite possibly there's a niche site, but I'm not sure how many people would want to profit from selling their religion. Creflo Dollar definitely has the name and the audience to do so now, but according to his site he preaches about a range of topics including personal development. There's also been the reported possibility that Congress will be investigating Mr. Dollar for inappropriate use of church funds, for buying nice high-priced items like a private jet, mansion, apartment in New York and fancy cars.
All in all the concept of making money will extend to your belief systems, your drive, your hunger, perserverance, and faith in yourself or religion. Find Jesus and the money will follow...
1/22/08
Monetize Your RSS Feeds
Many members of the Bidvertiser program are now beginning to experiment with the new Beta RSS Feed advertising program. An early complaint was that you would have to set up a brand new RSS feed to do so, thus losing your current subscriber counts. As of just a day ago Bidvertiser unveiled that they have made it easier to integrate their ad program with your existing feed, so you won't lose those counts!
This brings up the whole concept of monetizing your RSS feed. For myself it hadn't been a monetized space until just recently. In particular if you're using Blogspot for your blog, you can head over to your "Settings" tab and then to the "Site Feed". Blogspot allows you a Post feed spot where you can put a line of text, or even HTML code. Think about ways to monetize that bit of space for your feed. For example, an ad for a relevant Amazon product, or just a general link to an affiliate product that relates.
I've also seen blogs that are using the "Feed Flare" tool from Feedburner. These are typically the items you see after a blog RSS feed such as "Digg this", "Email this", "Stumble It" and "Comments". Blogs have creatively put links there such as "Get concert tickets here". You can consider using the Feed Flares as yet another way to monetize, although from looking at the set up it may involve a bit more coding experience.
Overall, if you're looking to make money online, you'll need to look to every possible income stream you can. RSS feeds are a powerful place to be placing ads or affiliate links, so use them wisely!
Monetize your Website or Blog with BidVertiser
1/20/08
Become a True Stats Guru!
As the owner of your blog or website you are officially the main webmaster, unless you're having someone else perform the duties for you. With that task on your shoulders you can become a true stats guru. The Monetizer has been checking various blog stats even more than before, as search engine traffic has been on the upswing for them. It's good to know what people are looking at or for, as well as where they are coming from and other unique viewing/visiting habits.
Many people recommend Google Analytics, The Monetizer included. However you will most likely want to add Stat Counter as a supplement to it. I recently found out about this from RetireAt21.com, which publishes a list of young entrepeneurs. StatCounter offers a free stat analysis code you can plug right into your blog, and they make it painless and easy. For free you get a total of 500 logs (visitor paths) a day, to show you the various visitors and habits. There's also paid subscriptions, should your site receive more daily traffic.
(Where are your visitors coming from?)
I find the stats that StatCounter provides quite comprehensive info and it updates quicker than Analytics seems to. The interface is smooth and it's pretty interesting to see exactly where each visitor is coming from or what search terms brought traffic. You may be surprised to see Russian or European search engine traffic, or that a certain term brought someone to your blog. It may even tell you that you need to blog about certain keywords or phrases, ASAP, as traffic is coming to you for that. Also, StatCounter will help you gauge your various advertising and marketing ventures that you're using to promote your blog. For example you might notice that using a signature in a certain forum is bringing you extra traffic. From there you can tweak and continue with your promotional efforts.
I also recommend that when you're adding any of your blogs/sites to be tracked, that you put your personal IP address into the spot StatCounter has for IPs. This will block out your own visiting stats and help give you a better idea of visits. Otherwise if you're the type to constantly check on the look of your blog or posts you've done you'll taint the results. To get your IP, one of the easiest ways is to visit IPChicken.com. It will immediately tell you you're unique IP, and then you can copy/paste that into the appropriate box on StatCounter.
If you want to be truly in charge of stats analysis for your blog, head over and register for the free StatCounter. It makes for a great supplement to Google Analytics for measuring your site visitors and which keywords or posts are receiving attention.
1/19/08
Using Widgetbucks to Monetize
The Monetizer took a look at other blogs I run and made the decision to implement Widgetbucks more onto them. The main reason is these blogs have underperformed with Adsense or generally have low PPC results.
Widgetbucks has these advantages to it:
1) It's another Pay Per Click type monetizer to use for your site/blog.
2) It also offers Pay for impressions, for visitors outside the US to your sites.
3) Many site visitors are visual and the ads will catch their attention.
4) Higher PPC than Adsense for several categories.
I read up on Widgetbucks and have learned that people recommend using the MP3 Players, Laptops, Flat Panel TV's and PDA's for their ads, because these are the higher paying categories for clicks. It's also recommended that you keep your widgets above the fold with the default animation time of 3 seconds. You may also want to use clever Widget titles to encourage people to check out the items. For example "Latest Reviews" or "Hottest MP3 Players". The biggest disadvantage to Widgetbucks is that they don't necessarily blend in with every type of blog, thanks to the white background color. However you can do your own blending and experimenting with the color schemes (borders, etc). Many have suggested embedding the widget right into a blog post which reviews a specific product to draw more attention to what you recommend.
Most sites or blogs cater to a certain type of audience and that audience should be interested in the related products. There's music blogs, entertainment, video games, photography, fashion....the list goes on and on. Outside visitors from search engines may also be interested in the items. The Monetizer recommends that you consider using Widgetbucks more if you're unhappy with your current Adsense earnings. Once you start gaining more search engine traffic, you will be getting more clicks, and more money!
The minimum payout for Widgetbucks is just $50 versus the $100 you have to generate with Adsense. If you haven't already, be sure to
sign up for Widgetbucks
1/17/08
SEO Techniques that are Working
I hate posting redundant info, but these things will help you with getting more traffic to your blog from search engines. The Monetizer's been busy lately working on other blogs and making posts that get picked up in search results. This blog here unfortunately takes a backburner to other projects since it's the newest of the bunch. However, I want to re-emphasize that the following techniques WILL work to get you into the top of Search engine results. These are all things I've been doing more of lately, and it's paying off.
1) Use Free Keywords Tracker - You may need to spend some time there, but try to find popular searches related to your blog topic. If there are any that get searched for thousands of times a day, try doing a real Google search on them. If you see there is only 500,000 or less results (300k or under is even better!) then you should probably target those keywords or phrases. You'll want to write a blog post using that Keyword in your title, as well as within the entry itself. This will give you a new page on your blog to bring some search engine traffic.
2) Write an article, or two - Write up a 350-500 word article which relates to the keyword or phrase you are targeting. It doesn't even have to be brilliant material. The idea is to publish to article directories which allow HTML in your article. In your author or resource box, link back to your blog and the specific post itself, using your keywords as the anchor text. For example: The Monetizer is the author of a blog about making money online.
I then use Article Submitter to go and submit to 20 plus article directories. Again, I target those that allow HTML in the article, otherwise it doesn't seem worth the trouble because you get no links back. Check out my review of Directory Submitter which has a link for both Directory & Article Submitter, two powerful tools.
3) Use Social bookmarks - I've used socialmarker.com quite a bit now. It has 31 social bookmark sites included and allows you to submit your blog entry to them all much easier. When you first go to Socialmarker, you enter your blog entry title, your URL, description and keywords. You click "Submit" up on the top right of Socialmarker. Then you will go 1 by 1 through sites such as Digg, Stumbleupon, reddit and other bookmark sites. You may need to register for those you don't belog to yet. This helps as it will provide backlinks to your blog entry. I scored traffic from a few of these social bookmark sources as well.
4) Use Squidoo - If you have time I recommend you make a Squidoo page that relates to your blog topic in general. You can always add in links to your new blog posts at a later time, and it gives them extra link juice. If you have even more time, create a new Squidoo page just about the Keyword/phrase you are targeting and add in links to the blog post throughout it (using keyword/phrase as anchor text). I will have a post in the future discussing more about Squidoo which is a site I think many scoff at or ignore because it isn't making them money. There's more to it than that, in an indirect way.
5) Place links elsewhere - You should try to link back to your keyword targetted blog post in other entries on your blog. Ask/Answer forums, other blogs that have DOFOLLOW for comments, forums, social media sites. Find places to put your link with anchor text for your keyword. I haven't gone too crazy with this.
The combination of the above things is working well for me, and I believe it can work for you too. They will take time, patience and determination, but they work. It's taken just a few days for several of my blog entries to get into the first 3 pages of results. Some got to page 1, others got to page 2 or 3. If you try using these methods above and are targetting highly searched Keywords with lower results (500,000 or under), you will most likely see the same success. Again, sorry to be redundant with this material, but I think people are missing out on capturing loads of traffic via search engines.
1/15/08
Make Money with Pay Per Play!
Well the Monetizer has officially made the Pay Per Play plunge (say that 5 times fast!) Pay Per Play is the revolutionary new audio advertising program by NetAudioAds which goes into effect February 2008. It's been positively talked about in The Wall Street Journal, so it just might be the biggest new thing for money makers online. They are likening it to Pay Per Click, so time will tell if this one really takes off. The idea though is to sign up now for Pay Per Play, because the faster you sign up, the faster you can start getting people referred! What's the referral plan? I'm glad you asked..
* 5% of what the advertiser spends on PPP ads played on the
website(s) of those you refer.
* 5% of what the advertiser spends on PPP ads played on the
website(s) that your direct referrals bring on board.
So as you can see, it pays to get in and get referrals before other people do!
Don't worry, this doesn't look like another Agloco type deal. The payments WILL start in February 2008, with the minimum $25 payouts going to your bank, home mailbox or PayPal account. It involves audio ads that you can stick on free blogs or other sites you own. You get paid based on a person visiting your site for 2 seconds minimum with the audio ad, whether they have their sound on or not. So if you can get the traffic up for niche blogs, you have yet another moneymaker!
I have a few other blogs where I'm going to test this out. They aren't high traffic yet, but I am targeting keywords and phrases to bring in more traffic. I'll be reporting back on my discoveries of course. I'd recommend those who'd like to try a new moneymaker online, sign up today and start implementing the code on your sites or blogs!
It's OK to Use Blogspot to Make Money
I've had the question or suggestion here more than a few times about "getting a self-hosted" domain for the blog. While this is advised by many moneymakers, the Monetizer is here to tell all those who shun using Blogspot blogs that you can in fact make money and profit from them. A blog I recently discovered, Make Money for Beginners (also hosted on Blogspot) sums it up very well. Grizzly, the blog's author discusses the concepts of making money online vs. building up your snazzy looking brand/authority. For example, you can have a fancy looking Web 2.0 blog full of style and pizzazz, but usually this is best for building yourself as a brand and making yourself look good online. It can most likely help you if you get into the realms of serious e-book sales or affiliate marketing. There's nothing wrong with that. There's also the concept of making money, and using free methods to do it. Since Grizzly discusses the topic for beginners, he points out that using Blogspot is a good way to go. A free investment that makes you money is better than spending for hosting, wouldn't you agree?
Now, the Monetizer has had hangups and irritations with Blogspot as well. For example, the other day I went through and realized I needed to add sitemaps for all my blogs to Google webmaster. This can be quite a chore to do with Blogspot. Usually you can just enter your Blog's URL and "atom.xml" at the end as a sitemap, but sometimes it will report errors and not index properly. There seems to be an issue related to RSS feeds on Feedburner and your original Blogspot feed, but I haven't quite nailed this down yet. Another issue comes when submitting this blog to search directories. Often times they won't allow you to submit something if you don't have an email address from the same domain. There's no "@blogspot" email addresses, yet. Wordpress on self-hosted domains will obviously give you greater freedom and ability when adding a sitemap or having an email at your domain. It also gives you total ownership, at a price of course. It will make your site a brand, and give a site you can be proud of. You really need to determine your goals though. Having a flashy site to impress people and gain as many loyal fans, or making money through simply set up blogs and sites.
The choice is really yours. You can easily build 1, 5, 10, 100 Blogspot blogs and make your own personal army of "free" moneymakers. They do make money folks, so don't think having a domain and self-hosting is the only route to go. It may be advised by A-Listers and those who have built themselves into a brand (or those trying to). But if you want to make decent money, Blogspot can work just as well.
I'd also encourage readers to check out Courtney Tuttle's challenge here. It involves getting yourselves top search rankings and is definitely worth learning as it can help drive traffic to your blog while you're sleeping.
1/13/08
Tips for Running a Blog Contest
Running a contest is good for many reasons on your blog site. It will bring you new subscribers, links back to your site and ultimately reward one lucky winner with a prize. As the "Hit 777 EC's With the Monetizer" is the first contest I've ever run on any blog, it's definitely been a learning experience in the early stages. It's had over 10 entries so far, so it takes some work to keep track of the various entry types.
Here's some things to consider when you set up a contest on your own blog:
1) Keep the rules clear and simple. Last thing you want to do is confuse people. I think following form of most other blog contests you've seen helps here. Take a look at the blog Contestblogger.com. They announce every contest around and you can see how sites set their rules. With this I also decided to make a minimum number of entrants. Entrecard is popular but you never know what you're gonna get based on current traffic, etc.
2) Promote the contest elsewhere - Not just on your blog itself. I'd suggest you make a clear link somewhere noticeable on your blog. Look to other blogs and forums to announce your contests as well. Especially if you're a newbie blogger and may not have traffic to get enough entries. With this contest I posted on the Entrecard forum and informed a Contest Blog. The word of "mouth" from other blog entries helps too.
3) Keep a spreadsheet - That's the best way I could come up with to keep track of who has entered and how they've entered. Have columns for each of the ways to enter, RSS, Email, and Blog Post. List out each entrant. Then put the appropriate "entry amount" in that column for each person. I've also used it to keep track of people's emails, blog post URL's and screenshot URL's. So it's a smart idea to set up an Excel Spreadsheet or even download the free OpenOffice.org.
4) Determine a Good Deadline - I set the contest to end February 1, which seems far away right now. I'm thinking 2-3 weeks is good for most contests, because the longer it runs the more potential entries you will get.
5) Make Sure You Have the Prize - I've read on another blog that someone won a Playstation 3 and never received it. In this case I'm good for the 777 EC's sitting within my Entrecard account, so have no fear ;)
Again I wish good luck to any and all who've entered so far. I've also decided I will provide link love on the post announcing the winner. That means every entrant will be listed in the post as well, with a link back to their blog site or entry. It's rather simple to enter and you can check it out here:
Hit 777 EC's With the Monetizer!
1/11/08
A Really Scary Ghost Story
Ok, Halloween is long past, but I wanted to share a really scary ghost story with you. The story is actually about each of us as individuals, and originates from Napoleon Hill's book, "Think and Grow Rich". The book isn't on the level of Stephen King horror, but it can be just as scary.
The story is that we each face the really scary "Six Ghosts of Fear". These vicious apparitions are what hold us back in our lives and prevent us from achieving the true success that we all deserve, even in blogging or making money online.
Six Ghosts of Fear:
- Ghost 1 is the Fear of Poverty
Ghost 2 is the Fear of Love Loss
Ghost 3 is the Fear of Illness
Ghost 4 is the Fear of Old Age
Ghost 5 is the Fear of Criticism
Ghost 6 is the Fear of Death
As Hill mentions, many people will be quick to tell you they fear nothing, when in fact deep down in their subconscious they fear at least one of these. It may not be something they speak of often, but it exists and may even be what drives them. These fears are detrimental to our well-being and enjoyment of our lives though. They often lead us to other problems as well. For example a constant fear of love loss or illness can in fact manifest itself as illness in us. Bloggers most likely face the fear of criticism more often, or even the fear of poverty if they quit their jobs to blog.
So, I think that you'll agree this is a really scary ghost story. Often the scariest story of them all unfolds when we start evaluating our own flaws. That's not meant harshly, but often we are afraid to face these things. Others may be a better source of evaluation for what haunts us. Ask yourself which of these six scary ghosts do you really fear the most? Napoleon Hill basically says that once we face these ghosts of fear and learn to eliminate them, we can be on our way to true success.
And for a really scary ghost story on DVD, see:
The Exorcist (The Version You've Never Seen)
New Entrepreneur Tax Planning
The following is a sponsored review. When you set up your own new business, often times you're faced with the challenge of what you want to operate your business as. It may be a partnership or even a sole proprietorship. It's extremely important, as the type of business you operate as will determine how you handle your tax situation. At the following S Corporation site they discuss the dangers of being in a sole proprietorship or partnership. Stephen L. Nelson CPA, MBA and MS also explains the S corporation advantages. There's several articles on the site including Tax return preparations, setting salaries for the owners of S corporations and a comprehensive Frequently Asked Questions section. Most importantly the site features $49 "do-it-yourself" kits to set up a S corporation in any state. It's definitely worth a look for entrepreneurs who are trying to figure out the best and most economical ways to set up their business venture.
1/10/08
Work to Make Money Online
All too often this concept is very overlooked online when it comes to making any sort of income. Mainly people have this conception that just adding Adsense code to a blog or site, or just signing up for a program will start making them instant money. It just doesn't work this way folks. You get paid for work in the real world, and making money online involves work too. If money were free, we wouldn't need make money online blogs...John Chow would be primarily blogging about food and Shoemoney about UFC.
Almost everyone's a rookie when they start out with Adsense. You may have read up on it, but it's going to take extra planning and tweaking to get it to work for your particular site. Not only that but in order to get paid by Adsense, you need enough traffic visiting your site to get the impressions/clicks to earn the $100 minimum payout. Getting traffic takes work, whether it be search engine optimization, promotion/marketing, building social networks or even offline publicizing. To expect Adsense to make you a steady income off a blog just by adding the code is a bad assumption. Many times it may even take several blogs or sites to earn a check from Google. It may also take several months before you even see that first check. But believe that it will take work. If it doesn't, then you're probably spending money to make your money.
Then there's the referrals signing up for programs. I've had individuals say "ok I'll sign up through you so you'll get the credit/incentive". The referrals don't work this way. For example, Widgetbucks or ShoppingAds (formerly AuctionAds). You can sign up for them, and you'll have $25 to start in your account. But simply signing up doesn't earn the referrer money. The referrer earns money through their own work and your work. And you'll earn extra money through the work you put in, to get your own referrals and implement the code on your site. PayPerPost is the same. You can sign up through a referrer, but they don't make a dime until 1)your blog is approved and 2)you post about PayPerPost. There's the work. Even survey programs seem like great concepts. But you're being paid for work, in terms of filling out surveys, which takes your time and effort.
Don't believe for a minute that guys like John Chow, Shoemoney or Darren Rowse are just lucky individuals who happened to make a fortune online. All 3 have worked extremely hard to get to where they are. So how hard are you willing to work to make money online yourself?
1/8/08
Hit 777 EC's with the Monetizer!
It's time for the first official contest here at The Monetizer! You may have seen all those "Win 500", "Win 750" and even "Win 1,000" Entrecard credit contests, but this has a different "spin" to it. Since the Monetizer used to be much more of a gambler, this contest has a casino theme. One of the best things you can achieve in a casino is hitting 7-7-7 on a slot machine. It usually brings quite the payout! Now here you can hit the Triple 7 on the Monetizer's slot machine, giving you 777 Entrecard credits to spend up!
It's quite easy to enter, there's 3 ways:
1) Blog about the contest (2 entries) - Make sure in your post that you provide the 2 links: 1 back to this blog (with "make money online" as the text), 1 back to the contest post. Here's an example you could use:
That cool character the Monetizer blogs about ways to make money online. Now he is also giving you the chance to win 777 Entrecard credits over at his blog! Check out the "Hit 777 EC's with the Monetizer" contest for all the details!
Also, provide that blog post's link here as a comment or email me it!
2) Subscribe to Email Updates (1 entry) - make sure to comment here that you're subscribed this way.
3) Subscribe to RSS feed (1 entry) - Please comment with a link to a screenshot showing the RSS feed on your reader, or email me it at monetizer@myway.com.
Confused yet? Me too :) That's a total of 4 entries, should you choose all 3 ways to enter! Make sure to email me or comment with your links to let me know how you've entered!
The contest will end February 1st, 2008 and the winner will be chosen at random amongst all the entries. As a rule, I'd like there to be at least 10 entrants. It's never fun to win a contest when it's just 2 people! Plus I know there's at least 10 people on Entrecard who want those 777 credits to spend!
So start entering, tell your friends and strike it rich with The Monetizer!
1/7/08
I Get Money with the Travian Money Cheat
You're probably asking yourself, what is a Travian money cheat and how do I get money from it? The Monetizer had no clue what it was either, until just today. My initial thought was it must be from World of Warcraft
I could easily turn this into an analogy of how conquering the online Travian game is like conquering the make money online world. The real point here is that the search term came up 4th when I researched the word "money" on Wordtracker. It's a tool I've been using a lot more lately to help me create new SEO-targeted blog posts elsewhere. You type in a simple keyword like "money", and Wordtracker gives you the top related keywords people search on, plus the estimated times they are searched for each month.
Here's a look at the "money" results:
8578 money
6449 money talks
3705 i get money
1539 travian money cheat
1530 download money maker for clubpenguin
1504 free money
1275 money shot
1114 money in the bank
1100 money honey
1097 msn money
1037 50 cent i get money
1031 unclaimed money
So basically people aren't just searching for free money, but also Club Penguin money, 50 Cent's I Get Money
(Are you a Roman, Gaul or Teuton?)
Sometimes you have to get creative in your blog posting and SEO strategies, especially here in the "Make Money Online" world. SEO can be fun, so don't look at it as a chore so much. It's something I've dedicated myself more to in 2008 and am already seeing traffic increases due to search engine results. I recommend heading over to Wordtracker and searching on any keyword terms related to your blog. Work on developing blog entries that are amongst the hot keyword searches. Keep an eye on the keywords that others may not be using for blog entries. Make sure to use these keywords in your blog title and entry itself. Once Google starts indexing your blog more, and you start using internal linking to those posts, I think you'll be pleased to see your entries start showing up in the higher search results.
And if you happen to know the Travian money cheat, feel free to drop me a line! (From what I've read, there's really no such thing.)
All images courtesy of Travian.us
Review: Fast Money Stock Picks
Another way of making money online is done in the exciting world of trading stocks, bonds, and options. Many people have been able to quit their dayjobs in favor of daytrading too. The cable station that has emerged as the leader in providing the best business news and stock information, is CNBC. They've basically turned stock-trading into a sports type activity, offering shows that bring excitement into what many may consider boring. If you've ever seen Jim Cramer's Mad Money, you know how crazy it can get. Cramer uses all sorts of sound effects and even behavior such as tossing a chair around the studio to illustrate his enthusiasm.
Another helpful show that CNBC offers nightly is Fast Money. The show airs every week night at 5 PM EST and is currently hosted by Dylan Ratigan. The traders who appear on the show bring their Wall Street trading floor knowledge straight to the viewers by offering a plethora of stocks to trade so you can in effect, make money fast!
Sometimes you might miss all the picks they give on the show. There's a website available to help you with that called Fast Money Stock Picks. The site, while plain in nature, does a good job in recapping the evening's stock picks and comments presented on the CNBC show. My first observation was that the site while providing these recaps, didn't really give me a true feel for a "stock market" type website. By this I mean, the banner for the site could be better associated with money, dollars or even black and white pictures of Wall Street. This may not seem like a major point to those that argue "content is king". Banners and site design often best create an atmosphere for what the site is trying to convey. The picture on the banner made me think it was a random blog image.
Overall, the site is simple and could use a bit more in terms of navigation and design. It still does what it says by providing the nightly stock recaps. The site owner may also consider making the stock pick text titles and ticker symbols differentiated with bold, underlining, italics and other techniques. Right now the website is still young, with just 103 entries. In the About section, the author says they try to watch every show and update. So if you follow the markets, this could be a good place to subscribe to in case you've missed any picks on the CNBC Fast Money show.
1/6/08
Read Yourself into a Fortune!
Monetizer just finished reading a great book called "Think & Grow Rich
The most basic premise of "Think and Grow Rich" is one which may seem common to many; that we are personally responsible for making our lives a success and for creating our fortunes. It's all about the power of the mind and learning to safeguard it from negative influences. Most importantly, it's about learning to take control of your life, apply specialized knowledge, tap into creativity, avoid negativity, and put into practice your plans to create wealth.
Several valuable concepts you'll read about in the book:
- - How people with unfavorable circumstances created very successful ventures.
- Deciding the exact wealth you want and how to achieve it.
- The concept of a "Master Mind" group.
- The "Six Ghosts of Fear" we all deal with and how to banish them.
- 30 reasons for personal failure
- The traits of a successful leader
- 55 "If" questions which always get in our way
- How sex is important to our success (no lie, there's a chapter on it!)
I won't list all of the concepts that are mentioned, but there's plenty to digest. I found this book to be extremely powerful and sensible. If you read it with an open mind, you're going to learn quite a bit about yourself and about how to take charge of your life. Once you have that under control, you'll create a plan and begin to overcome all circumstances in order to be successful. The book can also aid you in online money making as you put the ideas into practice, because you'll start to see what barriers block your success there. If you read this book, you will surely profit from it. It's one investment well worth the price of the book or the time you'll spend reading it.
1/5/08
Entrecard's Make Money 220
If you wanted evidence that the "Make Money Online" blog niche is a saturated and flooded area, look no further than Entrecard. 220 make money blogs have virtual business cards now, and I don't expect that to slow down. Maybe 500 by end of the year? Soon we will be seeing a stat at Entrecard, "a new make money online blog is born every 5 seconds".
This speaks volumes about the category though. Here's some simple observations:
- There's many John Chow/Problogger/Shoemoney wannabes. Not all of them will continue blogging or succeed.
- Make money blogs could easily recycle everything read on the other bigger blogs, but that won't set them apart. Presenting new ideas and concepts will, because the internet is constantly evolving.
- Make Money blogs need to put a unique spin on the topic to gain readers. I see a lot of blogs listed that claim they "know the way" or "know the secret" to make money online. No wonder John Chow is doing so well.
- Too many of the "make money" blogs like to discuss how they earned their first $10 on Adsense. It can be exciting, but it might be better to report you're getting monthly payments from Google Adsense. I think by now everyone realizes it is possible to earn money from Adsense and that a lot of people do.
- There's a Serial Monetizer. I'm truly honored, but I'm wondering if he targets Monetizers online. :)
As a longtime NBA fan, I can make the comparison of John Chow to Michael Jordan in this blog category. There will never be another Jordan, but there's now a Lebron James and a Kobe Bryant. The main point is that they haven't copycatted and they've achieved their own unique successes. The same can be done in this category.
With that said, I've noticed money maker blogs that wisely put themselves into the other Entrecard categories, like Internet Marketing or Business. It gives them less competition to worry about, at least on EC. The Monetizer's always been competitive so I'm glad this "Make Money" category is flooded. It's a lot less fun to win when there's just one other competitor. With at least 219 right now (maybe more by the time I hit "publish"), it makes it much more of a rewarding challenge to achieve results!
I'm also close to unveiling my first contest here so stay tuned folks..
Web Hosting at Gossimer
When it comes to hosting your blog or website, there's plenty of choices for online hosting companies. One hosting company you may want to check out is Gossimer.com, which provides several plans based on your website needs. The first thing I noticed was that their plans don't offer quite as much hosting space as other companies. Gossimer offers a basic Starter plan at $5.95 per month which offers 200 megabytes of space, 5 gigs of Bandwith, webmail and more. For $8.95 you can have 500 megabytes of space and 10 gigs of bandwith. There's also luxury and business plans if you need even more space and bandwith flexibility. For the prices you might expect a bit more than just 200mb of space at $5.95 a month.
One thing about web host, GoDaddy.com, is that the site's navigation scheme can be overwhelming at times, especially if you need to get to a particular section of your account. Gossimer's site seems set up in a much more user-friendly and organized manner. According to the site's "About" section, they launched their company in 2002, and have continued to evolve their services since then. They may not offer the types of deals that other hosts do, but they have many testimonials from satisfied customers. Reliable customer service is definitely something you want from your hosting company.
Gossimer doesn't just offer web hosting plans either. You can register, transfer and sell domains. On their site there's also a helpful "SEO Tools" section which offers an Adsense Calculator, Adsense Preview, Alexa Rank Comparison tool and an Advanced Meta Tag Generator, amongst other tools. There's several site builder tools as well, so users with limited web design experience can easily create a site hosted at Gossimer.
They also provide helpful tutorials which show how to use cPanel, Email functions and Fantastico. For those interested in being affiliates, Gossimer offers a Referral and a Rewards program. Overall they seem to have a well organized and clean site which can help provide web hosting for many individuals.
View more about their web services at Gossimer.com.
1/4/08
Get Your Blog More Search Engine Traffic
On another blog I have, the majority of traffic came from a massive social media network I built up. I recently decided it was time to put some experimental link building into place to benefit from more search engine traffic. I decided to use 4 methods and so far the results have quickly landed a keyword-targeted blog entry into the top 2-3 pages of Google search results. This only took less than a week to do with a simple Blogspot blog post.
I'll use the example of a celebrity blog. Here's the four methods I used:
1) A Squidoo page - I used the Google Suggest Tool and Free Keyword tool by Workdtracker. With these tools you can enter a general keyword such as "britney spears" and see what related terms are being searched for a lot. So I used those two tools to figure out a good keyword phrase based on what has a high search volume and low competition (for PPC ad campaigns). Next, I did my own Google searches on these terms. I narrowed it down to keyword terms that had 300,000 pages of results or less and finally selected my phrase.
I created a Squidoo lens using the keyword phrase in both title and description. I also included my blog's URL and RSS feed on the Squidoo lens. Squidoo can help get you valuable backlinks, so I'm not sure why people downplay it's usefulness so much. If Squidoo's not making you money directly, it still provides you backlinks or a way for people to discover your blog entries. There's value in those as well so don't overlook Squidoo lenses as an option.
2) A series of blog entries - This involves creating a 10 part series of blog entries. For example, if you have a blog about Entertainment, you could do biography style entries on your top 10 favorite celebrities. You then create a post called "My 10 Favorite Celebs" and link back to each of the 10 individual biography posts. This is great for internal linking from what I've read and now from what I've seen. You can even set the date for those 10 posts back to an earlier day, making it link deeper into your blog archives. I also added the links for each of these posts onto my Squidoo page.
3) Article submission - I wrote a general article using my Keyword phrase in my article title, and within the article body itself. The article was 350-400 words long and far from anything I'd call outstanding writing. On some article directories I was able to use links in the article body, with my keyword phrase as the anchor text. Tread carefully with using too many links in your article, as it may be considered spammy. At the end of my article or in the resource box, I linked to my blog URL and the specific blog post I mentioned before ("Top 10 Celebrities"). I submitted to probably about 25 or so article directories using the free Article Submitter software. It seems that my article on searchwarp.com and ezinearticles.com got into the first few pages of Google search results for a few days.
4) Socialmarker.com - I used this to bookmark the example "My 10 Favorite Celebs" blog post which contains the other internal blog links. Socialmarker bookmarks your item to about 20-30 social bookmark sites (Digg, Stumbleupon, Reddit, etc), all of which you must register with. There's a few sites that may not relate to your content, for example they only want internet marketing, SEO, HTML, and technology story bookmarks. Use this method appropriately with your content. I've found that the site indianpad.com actually showed up on some early search results for Google which may warrant you to try submitting more content there. You may also consider bookmarking the Squidoo page and the article your write with Socialmarker.
This took work, but I believe these 4 methods helped my blog entry get into the first few pages of Google search results. I'm going to continue with the article submission, social bookmarking and some other ways to get backlinks to see if I can get to page 1 of the results. If you use the Google Suggest and Wordtracker, I think you can find some heavily searched terms with low competition related to your blog topic. Create a series of blog posts about the keyword phrase you select. Also create a Squidoo page, and the article all using your selected keyword phrase. Then start bookmarking your Squidoo page, blog post and article. You just might surprise yourself at how quick you can get into the first few pages of Google search results!
I know sometimes tech talk can go over my head or other's heads so let me know if anything seems confusing or you have questions.. The Monetizer is here to help.
1/3/08
People Want Answers - Wiki Answers
This isn't a paid review of any sort, just a bit of info sharing about a site The Monetizer found. The site is called Wiki Answers and one of its question pages came up within the 1st two pages of a specific search I did on Google. Wiki Answers is just what you might expect; a site where people pose questions and others provide the answers. It's easy to register and use, and can potentially provide you with a flow of extra site traffic.
The coolest part of the site, is you can add in your own answer to a question or even "Improve an answer". You are given an option to supply a site link as part of the answer, with anchor text for your link. The Wiki Answers site currently has a pretty high traffic rank, so this makes a ton of sense to do. Leave a link if you have a blog post that answers a popular question, even if the question has been answered 10-20 times. People who view that question will see your link and possibly visit for more info on the topic.
I placed a link as an answer there and it has brought about 400-500 visits in several days time. That's not Digg like traffic, but it's not bad either for a new steady stream of traffic. It basically means you're listed within the first few pages of Google search results too. Consider this technique: Do a search on keywords or phrases on Google related to your blog. See what comes up in the first 2 pages of the results. If there's any Wiki Answers listing or another Ask & Answer type site, you may have struck a new traffic source for your blog. You can also register for the site and just poke around a bit. Find out the popular questions related to your blog, and see what you can answer with blog posts. While this may not be groundbreaking, it may be a technique many overlook in terms of getting some extra traffic.
(Note: The above technique may vary based upon the popularity of your search terms. Also use the obvious ideas of leaving links on forums, blogs and YouTube videos that may come up in the 1st few pages of a Google search.)
1/2/08
PayPerPositivity: Buying Blog Votes
A member of a social media site I frequent posted an interesting link to a "Vote for Hillary" blog. It was hosted on the free Blogspot platform, and actually included a post in which they were offering people $1.00 for posting positive comments about Hillary on other blogs. Shameless? Very much so. It's a sign that someone believes influencing the comments in the blogoshpere can help shape the vote. It's like a sort of "subliminal blog messaging". It's amazing the way technology is playing into this 2008 election, but this is a low. Here's a look at their offer:
But enough about that, you want to know about getting paid to write positive comments about Hillary. The way it works is this: in your spare time, you visit several political blogs. Whether they're for a specific candidate, undecided, or even a downright Hillary hater, your job is to post comments that portray Hillary in a good light. Each time you post a comment like this, make a note of the website's address in a text file (we recommend notepad). After a day's worth of blog commenting, send us an e-mail with that notepad file including all of the blogs you commented on. We will then visit a few of them to confirm you in fact leave the comments (Sorry folks, but there's always going to be someone out there wanting something for nothing). We will then pay you $1.00 per positive Hillary comment.
The blog went on to give you tips on how to comment positively about Hillary on blogs. They have a number of other posts including news about the Clinton campaign. The blog also is running Adsense ads, but down below the fold. It would be interesting to know if they made any extra revenue on this sort of blog. Anyways, that was their offer back in November, $1 per positive blog comment.
Then, on December 19th, this heartbreaking announcement came:
We have a lot of good people in this movement and most of you are good honest hardworking people. But we have been misled. Hillary is not the candidate to turn back America, she will keep us moving in the wrong direction that will most certainly turn to disaster.
We are not going to endorse a different candidate at this time, but we are calling off all support for Hillary Clinton. This was a very difficult decision and we hope you understand.
This is a definite example of the types of make money online concepts to watch out for. I'm not here to bash Hillary or try to boost any other candidate, because this isn't a political blog. But the question now becomes, based on their change of heart, will they be paying people to post newer, more truthful comments about Hillary?
(Note: I'm the Monetizer, and I approve this blog post.)
1/1/08
New Year's Day Comment Spree
Monetizer decided that there's no better day to comment other blogs, of any subject matter than on New Year's day. The reason is very simple, that today your comment can be 100% positive. You wish the blogger a Happy New Year and success in 2008. Most people are posting about New Year's today, so it makes for a relevant comment, and it gets you into the comment habit. In addition, it may get you some new visitors and backlinks!
While going on this Entrecard drop and comment spree, there's something I painfully noticed, which others have blogged about. What stuck out is the amount of items people will put onto their blog sites. While it can be cool to add unique gadgets and widgets, it can definitely overwhelm your site and visitors! It can slow down the loading time for your site in general. For example, I've noticed geographical maps and exact position locators on several blogs. I always have trouble understanding the need for those, unless it's used on a Myspace profile or something. With Google Analytics you can easily check out a map which shows visits by position on a World map.
There's many other widgets and gadgets I've seen, and I also noticed a few blogs which employed almost every imaginable moneymaker there is (it had Widgetbucks, Auction Ads, Adsense, 125x125's and more!) While it's good to diversify your monetization, don't overdo it! That goes for widgets and money making items. It will only sabotage your efforts. You may of course disagree and feel the more items you have, the more your readers have to check out. But if it's slowing down the site or confusing them, it may be time to trim things down considerably.
That said I wish all a successful year for making money online in 2008!
The Monetizer's 2008 Resolutions
As another year rolls in and people are just waking from hangovers (or still sleeping them off), I decided to evaluate my upcoming resolutions and goals here. Since the year ends in an 8, I came up with 8 for my online ventures.
1) Make More Money - It seems like a greedy top goal, but more money equals more comfort in life. Once you have money to live comfortably, you can also give back to others. While that's not the only way to give back, it's very helpful. So I put this at the top of my 2008 list. To do so I will have to evaluate my strategies and blog audiences better. I'm seeing what works and what doesn't, and it will be a continued learning process.
2) Improve blogs - that means site designs and layouts. I'm never satisfied completely with current blog designs even if they are pulling visitors. I always know this can be improved, especially when you use Blogspot. This blog rests on blogspot, until I make the decision to go for a domain. Why wait? Because right now I have several blogs, and making a decision on which to host has been a major point of contention for me. I urge those who can afford it and are serious about blogging to host their site as soon as possible, it's one thing I've learned the hard way.
3) Improve ranks - That includes this blog and other blog's RSS subscriber counts, Alexa ranks, PR's and other ratings. I've done very well so far on this particular blog, thanks to things like BlogCatalog, BloggingZoom, Social Media and Entrecard. Looking to continue this in 2008.
4) MakeTop 100 for a Squidoo Lens - This might not seem important to others, but when you're close once it makes you hungrier to get there. I'm nearing this goal as I type, and it will be a great way to start the New Year. Monetizer has come close before, and is curious to see what it brings in revenue. If you've hit top 100 with Squidoo, let me know if you noticed any drastic increases in revenue.
5) Make Top 100 of 45n5.com list - Right now I've moved closer to the top 100, at #164. Something about this list is inspiring, with Problogger, Shoemoney and John Chow sitting at the top. Being in their company in the Top 100 ranking of anything is pretty sweet.
6) Continue building social media networks - The ones I see becoming increasingly valuable seem to be Facebook and Twitter. Myspace in my opinion is being eclipsed and at times it seems very old-school compared to the new school players, especially Facebook. I haven't fully learned how to tap into Facebook, but this will be part of 2008. Also, I'm looking to build up my Digg, StumbleUpon and other valuable networks to see if I can harness that power more. If you're on Digg, I advise you to add people with
7) Improve time management - Belonging to so many social media, bookmarking, content, blogging and advertising type sites can really be rough. It's come to the point where I actually missed approving ads on Entrecard (apologies to any who felt rejected). When you belong to so many article, media and other sites it can be tough to prioritize. In 2008, I hope to sort through these and use them with better management.
8) Learn more SEO - this is an area I felt was one of my weakest, so towards the end of December I started toying with it more, and feel it's something I can do well with. I was able to achieve page 2 of a Google search result within a week or so on another blog. So I will continue to learn more about these techniques in 2008. I recommend Courtney Tuttle's Internet Marketing School to those looking to learn. I've seen very valuable lessons and info in there.
Looking ahead, things can always get better. And that's the main goal, keep looking forward this year. Hopefully everyone isn't hurting too bad in the wake of their New Year's Eve celebrations, and let's get ready for a great 2008!
Win 1200 EC's from Earnablog!
It's a new year, and why not start it off with a load of free Entrecard credits? Earnablog has decided to bestow 1,200 EC's on one lucky winner in the New Year of 2008. The winner gets chosen on January 7th and gets the great bargaining power of all those advertising credits. As they point out on their post about the contest, 1200 EC's could buy you 5 days advertising on John Chow's blog. Or you could get lucky and get in on Problogger or John Cow..There's plenty of great advertising opportunities where you could make your blog more visible. You could also use those credits to simply turn around and give them away, increasing your own RSS or link backs to your blog!
Head over to Earnablog's contest details for more specifics on this contest. Make sure you are a member of Entrecard as well. If Monetizer wins, most likely you will see a big giveaway here of more Entrecard credits...Stay tuned, and good luck!
