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.)

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!