The popular topic of a day or so ago, or for the next few days it seems, is how Google has dropped the PageRank of many top notch bloggers and other sites around the world wide web. It was an unexpected and sudden drop that maybe several weren't expecting, but Google is well known as "masters of the unexpected". The Monetizer is pleased to say this blog is new (under 3 months) on Blogspot and has a Page Rank of "n/a". Google can't drop me below that, but maybe they will develop a reason to.
There's a smattering of articles around the blogosphere discussing the PageRank issue, how it may effect the way you monetize your blog site, and how to work it to your advantage.
DoshDosh's Maki writes Google PageRank Doesn't Matter. Can We Stop Talking about it Now?, discussing how PageRank is a "webmaster fetish", and that complaining about it on a blog isn't the best thing to be doing.
John Chow discusses Turning a Negative into a Positve, by realizing that you, the site owner, control your blog monetization, not Google PageRank. Chow has indicated he has removed the PageRank stat from his advertising page as well.
Courtney Tuttle presents an Alternate Theory for Google PageRank Drops which discusses blog sites selling Text Link Ads as the possible reason for the PageRank drops. Courtney also discusses her thoughts on how PageRank drop may affect popular blog monetizers, ReviewMe and PayPerPost.
Ben Cook at BloggingExperiment.com discusses how to Use the Confusion to Gain an Edge. He discusses the idea of using other blog sites' PageRank drops to sell your own site even more.
Another thing taken into consideration (by Paid review type sites, and ad sales sites) is your site or blog's Alexa Rank, which helps display how traveled a blog or website is. Monetizer highly advises you to download the Alexa toolbar, codename: "Sparky" for your web browser. This toolbar will show you a site's Alexa traffic rank in the bottom lower right corner of your web browser. The lower the number, the more heavily traveled a site or blog is. It's always fun to watch the stat when you visit your own blogs or sites to see how they might be improving in Alexa rank. The little stat can also help you determine great places to set up shop and promote, because you want to be seen in high traffic areas :)
10/26/07
PageRank Drop Doesn't Hurt The Monetizer
10/25/07
Sites that Payed the Monetizer
Pictured Above: 1st check received from Cash Crate (Kingside Media) issued from Wells Fargo bank.
I want to keep folks updated on the pitfalls, perils and pleasures of online money making. As an update, I have received my first Cash Crate check (pictured above), in the amount of $26.45, earned last month (September). While not earth-shattering income, it's still extra income. It could pay for a domain name and hosting or even put into some online advertising investments. The check arrived on the 24th day of October, after being earned in September. Monetizer had noticed the online account indicated a payed date of 10/11/2007 so I began to frantically email them to ensure the check wasn't lost by mail. Luckily, it has arrived. The majority of my income on Cash Crate has come from their surveys, some of which are fun, others which are tedious. Overall though, this is a great program for you to join and promote to others, because of its very laid back nature (no spam, no pressure to participate daily, just at your leisure).
Read Monetizer's How to Use Cash Crate.com article.
Google Adsense has consistently payed by the 26th of the Month after you earn $100, so they are not one to really worry about. Trust me, these guys have the money to pay people so they are pretty good about it, from what Monetizer has seen. There have been grumblings here or there from various publishers, but you never fully know what their situation is. Perhaps one of the most famous pictures of an Adsense check belongs to Shoemoney, seen below.
Read Monetizer's Introduction to Adsense here.
As for Gather.com, while Monetizer has not qualified for their cash program (which requires a lot of time spent commenting in the community during 1 month), Monetizer has received 2 gift cards for points ($20 Borders and a $25 Home Depot). I have a $50 Borders card on the way, it's been maybe 2 weeks since the order was put in for it. Most of my gift cards have arrived in that time frame. This is a social media site that can become quite addictive, but you basically earn points by giving and getting comments and several other actions on the site.
The quickest payer I have found thanks to DayJobNuker.com, has been Associated Content. They pay directly to PayPal. AC has consistently deposited to my PayPal account within 2-3 business days after I have accepted an article payout offer. I highly recommend this program to those who have a lot of spare blog entries that they can upload as articles, or just those who enjoy writing. AC takes content from all types of interests, from how-to's to movies to sports to politics. Most of my "non-exclusive" content has been accepted, but occasionally there are rejections over material not being new enough. Submitting content as "non-exclusive" will ensure that you can republish it or have it published elsewhere already. You also need to set your account to auto-confirm payments, which will speed up receiving them. Monetizer has earned closed to $60 with the site, in under 2 weeks time. For those struggling to meet Google's Adsense threshold would be a nice way to see some online money, as well as link back to your blog or site.
Read Monetizer's Make Money with Associated Content article.
So there you have four online sites I have received actual payouts or items from. I will continue to update readers as more sites give payouts or any problems may occur. Also, this is not to say Monetizer isn't earning with others such as Kontera, Clickbank or Squidoo, those just are yet to meet the payout threshold.
You can read about The Monetizer's recommended online Money Makers here.
10/24/07
GuessNow - MoneyMaking Can Be Fun!
In addition to the MoneyMakers already listed by Monetizer, there's always new money makers popping up that are seemingly undiscovered online. Some of these untapped money maker sites can be fun too! The latest discovery by The Monetizer is "Guess Now". So how do you make money there? Yep, you guessed it!
With Guess Now the premise is simple. You can either ask or answer questions which are basically poll style on the site. The object is to guess the correct answer for that particular question. Questions range from "will the US Jobless Rate have changed at the end of the business day" to "will J-Lo reveal she's pregnant by end of the month", to "how many runs will be scored in the World Series". You click off your answer on a question, for example "30-40" for the World Series total runs scored, then you select your confidence level for your answer. It's like point betting basically, and if you're very confident, it's an "All or Nothing" wager. If you're right you'll score big points (Monetizer saw questions worth as much as 800 points). If you're wrong, you get 0. Of course, you can choose anywhere down the line for your confidence level, all the way down to "No Confidence" and still earn points if you're wrong.
So what's the point of the points? Upon quick analysis of FAQ's and how it works, points are determined by yet another algorithmic formula based on total points in the entire community's pot divided by members equals cash value per point, etc etc. Basically, that's the tricky part with a lot of these sites. You never know how much time and effort you need to expend to earn actual money. But according to Guess Now, once your points are equivalent to $25, you can cash out with PayPal. Not too shabby for just guessing stuff right?
The beauty of this site is you will never be penalized for wrong answers. Also, your point total will continue to roll over month to month until you meet their $25 payout threshold. You can then cash out to PayPal once you're at $25 or more. The site offers the added advantage of being able to sort questions based on when they end as some are predictions extending way into next year involving politics and other world events. There is an "expiring soon" link you can click which basically gives you all of the questions ending that day. Basically you could run through these daily, giving random answers or guestimates and say "Very Confident". To experiment with this, The Monetizer has answered 42 questions which are due to expire today, October 24th, 2007. On each, "Very Confident" was selected. The majority of these questions involve stock/finance/business questions with a 1 in 3 chance to be correct.
It does appear there are other ways to drastically improve your points on this site, such as signing up for spammy offers and other registration type deals. The kinda stuff you probably want to avoid, and you can choose to "Skip" those on your Account area. You can also check off whether to receive emails from GuessNow.com, which cuts down on your spam from the site itself. But it seems worth a sign-up as a spare time way to find some big point guessing games. Answer correctly with high confidence and you may be on your way to some easy internet cash!
Monetizer didn't notice any referral program or incentive for signing up friends, so check out GuessNow directly. However if you do want to earn a whole 25 cents, sign up at Cash Crate today as they are paying a shiny quarter to people who sign up for Guess Now! Hey, I said the money making ideas would keep coming ;)
10/25/07 Update Notes: A few updates about GuessNow.com:
1) Monetizer has been stuck at 90 points since earlier Wednesday AM. This may indicate that points are tallied slowly, because it's hard to imagine that all of the 42 guesses made by Monetizer were incorrect!
2) Also, with the site, they want you to verify yourself before paying out. They ask for a photocopy sent of your Driver's license or Passport to prove who you are. It's fair, but sometimes suspect online, because it is personal info. There was a 3rd option to fill out a IRS form as proof, but the form seemed to be a dead link with the IRS site saying it will be back up.
10/23/07
BlogRush Approval and Policies
Well the Monetizer is pleased to announce this blog here passed the rigorous and tough standards set forth by BlogRush. I was just a bit worried after reading a recent blog entry where the Cow was banned from BlogRush. However, BlogRush sent email to say The Monetizer blog met up with their quality control guidelines. Cool deal.
Despite this, recent postings on the BlogRush blog have indicated that BlogRush wants you to place the widget on your blog higher up, if it isn't already. They say if they discover you aren't pulling the "clicks" they want, they will remove you from the program. Hmmmm... While I like the concept of BlogRush, I don't think they should be dictating how their widget is placed or used, because it's being put on someone else's internet real estate. It's obvious that the bigger bloggers are going to get more traffic (ProBlogger, Shoemoney or John Chow). But placing this widget above your "recent posts" or "Archives" on the sidebar doesn't seem idealistic for the smaller blogger who wants people to read and visit their blog.
Hopefully BlogRush won't be too strict with this requirement on behalf of the "little bloggers" of the blogosphere. Also, it's been a long time they have been saying "we're working on a better statistics dashboard". Granted, this is a free widget/service that can benefit the user for free, but the people signing up for it will want to see what it's doing for their blog. Otherwise rolling out this Beta item just looks premature.
This post is just a mini-rant. Monetizer has heard people reporting a bit of extra traffic from the widget so it must be doing something!
