Make your Webhosting Choice!

Just recently I purchased 3 new domain names as well as web hosting for some new make money online projects. As you probably know, there's a ton of different hosting companies you can choose to go with and each has its own unique benefits such asthe size of space you get online, bandwith sizes, number of domains you can host on the account, email accounts, and more. When you start seeing all the various offers for hosting in magazines and online, you begin to realize it's mindblowing just how many of these companies exist. If you don't have word of mouth from someone else, making the hosting decision could be difficult.

A website resource that seems like a great spot to start your search for web hosting is Webhostingchoice.com. This site provides a directory of web hosts as well as educational resources about hosting, to help novices and more experienced bloggers or webmasters. Among the resources are an article on how to identify webhosting scams, as well as an article on Colocation, which is an advanced topic I never knew much about until now. In addition to these informative articles, webhostingchoice.com provides the advanced search feature which is especially helpful because it allows you to specify just what you want in a web hosting choice. You can set the specifics for bandwidth, diskspace, subdomains, FTP, emails and more. You can also type in your maximum monthly payment for web hosting (within reason, because 99 cents won't get you anyt results). A sample search I did with a maximum monthly payment of $9.99 turned up the exact host I chose to go with a few months ago, Hostgator, so I know this resource does what it says. Many people have recommended Hostgator, but after I specified just what I wanted in a webhost, it was the only choice which came up for me. Perfect. In addition to the search, you can look at their various Host directory choices such as best options for Blog hosting, Adult Hosting and E-commerce.

Check out webhostingchoice.com if you're looking for the best web host for your blog or website project. It can save you hours of pulling out your hair while trying to find the best hosting choice for you!

Make Money with Vinefire, Maybe?

Have you joined Vinefire? Members could make anywhere from $10-$100 a day with this new online moneymaker!


So the other night I stumbled onto a new blog that was all about ways to use Squidoo lenses and defending them as a great moneymaking, linkbuilding tools. The blog which is run by PotPieGirl, a Squidoo moneymaker, had some valuable insight and information regarding making profitable lenses that get indexed and ranked in Google. From that blog, I decided to click over to another associated site which talked about building Niche sites with Wordpress, something Internet marketing coach Courtney Tuttle also discusses. From there, I learned about a free web tool I wasn't aware of yet, called CBAnalytics, which helps people rate and compare various Clickbank affiliate products. And from there I learned about an interesting "potential" moneymaker named Vinefire, which I also had never heard of until that night. It's amazing how many things you can learn about in this MMO niche, meaning there's no true experts on all make money online concepts...

So back to Vinefire, it's a "free" member driven content site much like Digg or other sites where you submit site links and vote on popularity of various items. The moneymaking scenario sounds not only tempting but easy and almost "too good to be true". 54 cents for every posted link you visit, 90 cents for every sponsor link you visit, 12 cents for every link you vote on, 4 cents if someone votes up your link, and 50% of the earnings of any friends you refer to Vinefire. As a basic member you can earn up to $10 a day with the site, and there's an option to pay $5 to verify your account which then enables you to earn up to $100 a day. Not too shabby right?

But wait, there's a catch, which will seem like "Agloco deja vu" to many people. Vinefire really wants to pay its members, and intends to, but they can't...yet. They are sitting back and waiting for Vinefire to grow in popularity and when certain site growth metrics have been achieved, they are also expecting to be bought up by a large company. At their forums in their FAQ they mention there is a potential suitor already in line to buy them. From the proceeds of that sale, which Vinefire expects to be valued in the millions, members will finally get paid. Vinefire has set their target payout date of June 1, 2009, not too far away. The interesting thing with that is originally they were planning to pay people in January of 2010. So they moved it up to keep people interested in the prospects. Apparently the villagers had their pitchforks and torches ready when they found out how long it might take to get money from Vinefire.

At the Vinefire forums they also add:

Please don't assume that the payout date has moved to June 1, 2009. It is simply a possibility...if we are able to reach certain growth goals. This includes things such as the number of new members, listing upgrades (Yellow Star, etc.), verified accounts, etc.

Yep, I know what everyone's thinking. Vinefire sounds like another Agloco or Boomertowne just waiting to collapse right underneath all its loyal members. There was a lot of angry people over those two websites and rightfully so. And to be honest, I was thinking the same thing about Vinefire too. It would be a shame to invest a lot of effort in promoting and frequenting that site with one's time only to receive a "Sorry Out of Business" notice one day. But despite that The Monetizer still joined, for the simple reason of testing it out. There's no reason not to get your feet wet with another money opportunity online. But definitely keep the lessons you may have learned from Agloco and Boomertowne in mind. Don't go all out with promotion, because if you do and they fail, it will be a tragic waste of your efforts trying to make money online.

If you're interested in a potential moneymaker, join Vinefire and take their special 10 day challenge...

Update: My account is at the $20 level on Day 2, just for clicking several links..of course, time will tell if that money is delivered...

Everyone's a Twitterer, even Oprah!

It's official. After yesterday's episode of Oprah hit the airwaves, millions of Americans more have now learned about the phenomenon that is Twitter (You can follow Oprah on Twitter here). On yesterday's show, Oprah had the creators of Twitter on including Evan Williams, as well as Mr. Twitter popularity himself, Ashton Kucher, aka @aplusk. As you may know Kucher was in a heated battle with CNN's Twitter to see which of them could amass 1 million followers first. The movie star won it, and was saying how great it is that he can defeat a media giant like CNN, because it shows just how powerful social media really is. On an interesting note, Kucher promotes the celebrity gossip humor site blahgirls.com with his Twitter profile. And by the way, CNN has also achieved 1 million followers. It's starting to look like the next battle may be Britney Spears versus Ellen Degeneres for 1 million. It's also amazing how now that the 2008 election has passed, Barack Obama's Twitter is falling down the Top 10 list.. View the top Twitterers here

Also, there's talk about Google possibly buying up Twitter. You can already feel the moneymaking wheels start to spin.

In Google's earnings call, CEO Eric Schmidt is quoted as saying:

"Without commenting specifically about Twitter ... you could imagine that ... it could be a channel for product information, marketing information, real-time information for which you can hang advertising products, whether it's a text ad or a video ad or so forth off of it ... It strikes me that's a logical strategy for them to pursue and something that we would be very happy to pursue with them and all other players in that space.” (via SIA)

As we all know Google is slowly taking over the web world, and if you're using Adsense you're probably aware there's Adsense for websites/blogs, mobile content, RSS feeds and domain names. So what's next, Adsense for Twitter?

If you're not on the bandwagon, now's as good a time as any to join, and Follow the Monetizer at Twitter. It's rare these days not to go to any company or superstar's website and not see icons or "join up" pictures for Facebook and Twitter. If the big folks are doing, the little folks can benefit just as much. I read an article discussing the concept of getting rid of the whole "follower count" on Twitter, because it makes those with less followers feel as if they're not being heard. That may be true, but there's plenty of ways to increase your followers, namely following others, holding contests and tweeting things that others will be interested in. Others have even mentioned that you should make it a habit to include hashtags "#" in front of key words when you send a Tweet. An example would be:

Learning a new strategy for testing #Adsense ads on my site.

In that Tweet, the word Adsense gets emphasis and picked up amongst searches for Adsense via Twitter. If you do this regularly, supposedly you can gain more and more followers. Also consider using search.twitter.com where you can type in specific searches across Twitter, then follow people who mentioned those keywords in their Tweets. These are just a few tips and tricks to get targeted Twitter followers based on your niche.

The Monetizer will be one of the first to admit I'm no Twitter expert, but have started learning ways it can be implemented into my various projects. You may hate technology but it's usually the businesses, brands and entrepreneurs who embrace it and find creative new ways to market who benefit the most from sites like Twitter.

Extra tip: Check out the Top Twitterers list and see what sorts of websites each are promoting. You may discover some new monetization ideas from their sites, blogs, etc for your niche!

Follow the Monetizer at Twitter!

Conflicker Eye Chart - Get your PC tested!

The good folks from Conflicker Working group have a special sort of Conflicker eye chart which tests your PC for that nasty PC Conflicker worm virus. The chart features a table chart with 3 columns and 2 rows, containing a total of 6 remotely hosted images. These images are from various Antivirus software websites such as Trend Micro and Secure Works. According to the Conflicker working group, the C variant of the worm virus blocks access by PC's to over 100 different antivirus security websites, hence a image eye chart test can be used to determine if Conflicker's running amok on your PC.

The way it works is simple. Don't worry you don't have to stand 6 feet from the screen and cover each eye. Stay seated, this is for your PC. If you can see all 6 images in the Conflicker eye chart, then you're most likely safe, unless you're running a proxy server. The folks at the site say running on a proxy server won't adequately test your computer for Conflicker.

If you (your computer) don't see the top 3 images, but see the bottom 3 images, it could mean you're infected with the Conflicker C variant which was revealed as a potentially dangerous virus on 60 Minutes, which claimed the virus was awaiting instructions for further action on April 1st.

If you see the bottom 3 images as well as the top middle "SecureWorks" logo image, then your PC may have the Conficker A/B variant.

If you don't see any images the working group suggests you may have image loading turned off. The Monetizer also suggests if you see fuzzy, blurry, distorted or no images you consider getting your monitor checked or go in for a human eye test.

http://www.confickerworkinggroup.org/infection_test/cfeyechart.html" rel="nofollow">Test your PC's health with the Conflicker Eye chart here.a>

Also see: Conflicker Worm Virus Removal Tools

Google Adsense Privacy Policy & Using Hot Trends

Today was spent feverishly updating or in some cases creating privacy policies for my various blogs and websites running Google Adsense. Just like my 2008 state tax returns, I've been procrastinating on getting this done. The major problem I had to work with was that I created a few fansites for different topics and each of those use Adsense on multiple HTML pages I uploaded. Luckily I had the aid of CoffeeCup HTML Editor (a nice freebie) to let me quickly modify the codes of each site (to add a link to my privacy policies). Per Google's new Interest based advertising it's imperative that you have a privacy policy for your blog or website(s) that run Adsense ads (and it's been advised you have the new Google part added into your prvacy policies by April 8, 2009, today). For a great example of a privacy policy you can modify refer to Grizzly's Make Money Online site's Privacy Policy. Sorry if this news is hitting anyone late but as of my posting you still have a few hours until April 8th ends.

I also want to highly recommend to readers that you consider checking the Google Hot Trends site daily if you're not making this a habit already. In the past week I've been doing this more and crafting blog post for various niche blogs based upon applicable topics. I tend to choose topics I see with longtail keywords I can target that I can be competitive with. Some of the hot trends have had very low competiton and brought nice extra surges in traffic to my various blogs. The key of course is properly monetizing that traffic, which I'm still tweaking on some niches. Still, I believe Hot Trends should not be overlooked in blogging, it will definitely give you topics to blog about (unless your niche is really, really obscure like "Toe Fungus" or "Sardine recipes").

Now it's time for me to start thinking about doing my state income tax returns again, perhaps I'll start them tomorrow....

Amazon Associates Program Changes

A few important changes were made to the popular Amazon Associates moneymaking program. These new changes involve the way in which some moneymakers have gained traffic to Amazon to earn referral fees, as well as the use of Amazon RSS feeds. The changes will only affect Amazon Associates from North American. Here's the official email The Monetizer received earlier today:

Dear Amazon Associate:

We’re writing to let you know about a change to the Amazon Associates Program. After careful review of how we are investing our advertising resources, we have made the decision to no longer pay referral fees to Associates who send users to www.amazon.com, www.amazon.ca, or www.endless.com through keyword bidding and other paid search on Google, Yahoo, MSN, and other search engines, and their extended search networks. If you're not sure if this change affects you, please visit this page for FAQs.

As of May 1, 2009, Associates will not be paid referral fees for paid search traffic. Also, in connection with this change, as of May 1, 2009, Amazon will no longer make data feeds available to Associates for the purpose of sending users to the Amazon websites in the US or Canada via paid search.

This change applies only to the Associates programs in North America. If you are conducting paid search activities in connection with one of Amazon’s Associates Programs outside of the US and Canada, please refer to the applicable country’s Associates Program Operating Agreement for relevant terms and conditions.

We appreciate your continued support and participation in this advertising Program. If you have questions or concerns, please write to us by using the Contact Us form available on Associates Central.

Sincerely,

The Amazon Associates Program

Google Gmail Autopilot by CADIE Released!

(Google Autopilot by CADIE)

E-mail just got a whole lot easier with the new Google Gmail Autopilot! While it's not as big a story as the recent April 1st Conflicker worm virus, Google's cool new application known as Google Autopilot is set to simplify the way you handle your daily emails. The new application designed by the web wonders will automatically create custom responses to your emails for you, because we get busy enough trying to keep up with all the emails we get.

According to the Autopilot information page, Google Autopilot will mirror your communication style when it creates responses:

The more Gmail messages Autopilot can sample, the better. With fewer than 100 messages, there may not be enough data to calibrate Autopilot effectively. You can adjust tone, typo propensity, and preferred punctuation from the Autopilot tab under Settings.

The good news is Google Autopilot also works with Gmail chat and both the sender and receiver can be using Autopilot at the same time.

In case you're wondering the designer of Google Autopilot is CADIE, or Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity. You can view their official webpage here. CADIE is the cute panda graphic you see on this blogpost, and offers the capability to create web code for users in addition to this nifty new email technology.

I suggest you give Google Autopilot a try today if you're looking to make life easier and keep all your email under control! Enjoy!