Archives for May 2009

Personal Updates and Ramblings

by Melvin · May 30, 2009

Well many of you who followed me since I started would remember me emphasizing always that this blog is a personal blog, not a make money online or internet marketing blog. But like what most blog’s who share their experience w/internet marketing and in this niche alike, they usually morph to mmo blogs or blogs that people somehow read to learn some guides. Well I wouldn’t lie by saying this blog hasn’t gone from being a personal blog to an internet marketing/blogging one as my post in the archives would probably tell you how this blog really evolved from a ramblings blog to a blog that all of a sudden teaches something, oh well.

I really miss the aura of having a personal blog so here I’m going to list some personal updates from me and some ramblings:

I just gained 12 lbs since February though it didn’t really look evident.
I bought another walkman phone so to make it kinda a collection.
Got myself another reseller account strictly to host this blog and my friends blogs. 🙂
Next week I’m going to go to the Internship so for the first time I am looking for quality guest posters. For those who are interested you can state your interest in the contact form.
Bought myself an album of Taylor Swift (I know it’s gay and it sucks)
Visited my relatives that I haven’t seen in quite a while.
Started a small offline business related to nuts!

What to look for, for the upcoming days:

My upcoming ebook w/c is titled ‘Monetizing Make Money Online Blogs’. I’m planning on selling it for a bargain!
Contest – am planning to hold another massive contest to give back to my readers.
change of blog’s theme? – what say you?
Newsletter – This one is far-fetched but I’ll try my best. 🙂
Blogging Hiatus – w/c is again due to internship. If there is no interest on guest posting then I would probably just sell put my blog on hiatus.
And many more. 😀

How about you?

Can Ebooks Help You Make Money?

by Melvin · May 25, 2009

LOLz, I know I’m probably gonna be biased in talking here because of I, myself having an upcoming ebook but trust me I’m not. 😉

A lot of people who are starting usually ask ‘if ebooks can really help them start making money online’ or if it’s just a complete worthless crap. Most people who ask this are probably getting lost because they see a lot of people selling ebooks but on the other side they see different types of people saying 99% of ebooks are scam and worthless. Can ebooks help you make money?

The short answer to the question is no! Ebooks can be informative and rich in content but we also need to take a look at the fact that most ‘gurus’ who sell ebooks aren’t really making money online outside of selling their books! I once bought an ebook w/c exposes how to do your own make money online book w/o being an expert in the certain niche and I was flabbergasted. Not only I discovered how anyone can easily make a book but also how idiots can make big bucks writing ebooks they don’t even implement. Another thing is that most ebooks are effective for just a very short period in time as it easily gets saturated. It’s not timeless. Most guru would discover a new way to make $100 a day, then test it more and more. After it they would sell the information only to find out that its not as profitable anymore as it once started.

Theoretically the answer could be yes as well. Over the course of my young internet marketing life I have purchased over 50 books related to mmo. 80% are junk, 20% ‘can’ be useful but not really implementable. I say yes, because there are really some useful infos on an ebook that’s not about getting rich but is about something you think is more trivial yet, can really be a good find. What I normally do is just pick something from the book and implement it to my own ideas. I’m not saying my ideas are better but it’s far better to believe more in your own skills (so not to blame anyone).

So to end this one, if a good friend of mine asks about that question my answer would definitely be no! I really used to have grit with ebooks as most marketers who market other people’s product rather than creating their own do. Buying ebooks ‘may not’ be a good way to start or it could be. And since ebooks are way cheaper than buying a pair of Nike shoes, there really isn’t anything to lose in buying one. So my piece of advice? If you have the money (and good faith in that certain ebook/s), then go ahead and buy as much ebooks as you can. Just don’t expect too much from it and stop being a crybaby afterwards.

How ‘Not’ to Have a Successful a Guest Post

by Melvin · May 22, 2009

I have already seen many guides on making an effective guest posts so I thought I would create one that is quite completely the opposite. 🙂

Anyways you might have seen me do guest articles on some blogs related to this niche. And to tell you honestly, guest post is really a great way to reach out to newer audience and types of people, interactive with them and hopefully have them following your blog. As I have been doing guest posts since last year I have learned a lot of stuffs about it and today I want to share you what are the things that you should do if you want to have your guest post suck big time:

Crappy grammar – Well I have had some problems before with this because usually I just type what’s on my mind spontaneously so grammars had become one of my problems before. If you are no-english native, that doesn’t mean you should write posts with grammatical errors. But still if you like ‘Not” to have a successful guest post, then do your crappy article!
Don’t comment/interact – While I don’t really respond to all comments, I try to interact as much as I can especially with guest posts. There is no worse thing than when a reader asks something on that certain post w/o getting a response from the guest blogger. Responding and interacting with them is like giving them another reason to subscribe and follow your blog. But anyway don’t respond back especially if you don’t want your author bio link to be clicked.
Be boring – Every blogger has his one tone and by trying to pretend you are somebody is a big ‘YES’ if you want to have an unsuccessful guest post. If you speak like ‘chow’ then so be it! If not, readers would surely get bored with your ‘professional-like, pretending’ tone.
Self-Promo Bio box – It’s not wrong to say that you are a ’10 year old blogger who has some experience in blogging’. But saying stuffs in bio box like ‘a guy who is making six figures a month and by purchasing my book you can learn how to’ is a big no no! The bio box plays a crucial role because it gives a short overview of who you really are and what value they can get from you in case they want to visit your blog. The box is not for bragging and self-promo but still if you think it can help you go ahead. Congrats, because you are destined to have no clickers for your link. 😀
Full of fluffs – I have to confess that during my early days of guest posting, I get a rate of 10% success in guest posting! 90% won’t even get passed the owners approval because of fluffs and some nonsense in the article. Remember blog owners expect articles that are even better than what they are writing, so they expect you to write ‘scholarly’. Put fluffs and prepare to be criticized!
Direct them to your front page – Ok here’s an example. On normal days this blog gets 150-250 uniques a day. On days where my posts on some blogs are published, I get 250-350 uniques. A 100 increase isn’t that high eh? Yes it isn’t (or it is depending on who you are), but on normal days my blog gets 700-900 pageviews and on ‘guest posting’ days it gets over 1500-2000! Why? Simply because of the use of landing page. LP is simply a page where the visitors land. Here’s my landing page for instance. The page simply contains an explanation w/what your blog gives and what your best/helpful posts are. To be honest when reading a new blog for the first time using their LP, I usually subscribe after getting to read their best posts! It can increase conversions up to 50% depending on how you carve out your own.

Over the past years I think I have improved a lot in terms of making a guest post. Guest posts are really beneficial in such a way that it can simply bring you a lot. I know some of you have also your own ups and downs with guest posts so feel free to share your thoughts (or critique!).

Monetizing ‘Make Money Online’ Blogs

by Melvin · May 17, 2009

Well reading the title, I am pretty sure you were thinking this one is a long and lengthy informative article but the truth is its not.

Anyway w/regards to the previous post I created about my blog income report w/c got a pretty good response, I’m working on an e-book that would reveal some of the tactics I use to monetize my blog (which somehow got into the mmo niche). I am looking to sell the info for a dirt cheap price for the first few buyers, then eventually increase the price and test the market more.

This is going to be my first e-book so please bare w/me for the use of slang terms. 😉

How Adsense Changed Everything (Ironic Way)

by Melvin · May 14, 2009

One of the reasons why Google Adsense has become popular is because it has changed the lives of most people who started using it. For instance Jeremy Schoemaker get started because of his $100,000+ cheque from Adsense. Some of my close friends do also get started with Adsense. After getting their $100+ payments, they reinvested it and luckily grew their business. In that way Adsense has not just become a money-maker, but also sort like an “inspiration”.

For me it’s no different except that it goes completely the ironic way. As what you can read from my about page, I started blogging 2 years ago primarily because ‘we were told’ Adsense can make us rich. The truth is it didn’t! Because earning from adsense is so hard when you a have website that has 10 pageviews a day, I became so impatient that I started clicking my ads and telling everyone (indirectly) to do the same instead of focusing driving traffic . Ok, luckily I was able to get my first adsense payment after 4 months for $102. I thought that was the best back then!

So I continued being a douche and still clicked my ads (and told everyone too) on computer shops and stuffs. I got two warnings then from Adsense about it but still continued. In the next 4 months I saw I have $140+ in my account, there’s every reason to be ecstatic for me (oh poor guy~!). Then the dreaded email from google telling me that I am banned from using them and they are going to reverse that $140 and blah blah. I pleaded my case to no avail. Of course why would I win the case if it’s obvious I was clicking it my own?

That had probably changed everything. That time I was really depressed not only with $ 140 but also expenses I have spent on renting comp.shops everyday just to pretend I’m a different people clicking my ads. It was all boggling my mind. Back then I haven’t received any payments aside from Adsense! So what I did was start working on what’s their and not on what isn’t there. I had accounts in Kontera, Moreniche, SponsoredReviews, PayPerPost, stuffs and stuffs. One common thing about it is I still haven’t reached the amount for minimum payout so I worked hard on it!

Long story short, I’m now here w/this blog that somehow people respect. I’m here with craploads of knowledge on affiliate marketing. Here, slowly but surely understanding the whole online business thing. That wouldn’t probably happen if not for Adsense banning me. Sure I’m not like other marketers who grew their business big time up to 6 figures but who cares? I’m far more happy w/where I am and how i’m doing things.

Every time I tell this story to people they were kinda wondering how I got lucky getting an Adsense payment while clicking the ads fraudulently. To be honest I don’t know either. Maybe i just really have done it patiently and carefully or Divine Intervention?LOL! But anyhow I’m far more happy w/how I got optimistic despite being banned and losing all the money I thought would be the money I could all make, how I became focused despite being a douche in an online world, and everything.

Sure its not the “better-hearing” story you could ever hear but it’s still nice story for me. How about you, any inspirational three-paragraph story to share? 😀

Don’t Let Me Steal Your WordPress Files!

by Melvin · May 11, 2009

I was bloghopping for the past 30 minutes with some blogs within my niche and noticed something in common.

So today I’m going to make a really quick article about protecting your wordpress folders and directory. A lot of bloggers I’ve noticed, have their blog’s folders browsable which is NEVER a good idea. I’d pick a cool kid name Desmond from DesmondBlog as an example. If you type the url desmondblog.com/wp-content/uploads you could pretty much see everything in the folder:

Seeing the whole content of the uploads folder is no bad (who cares about it?). But because his blog’s subfolders are browseable, we could pretty much view his themes @ /wp-content/themes (and get his premium themes),as well as its subdirectories and how about the plugins folder located at wp-content/plugins? Hackers could just go in it very simple and discover that you actually run an out-of-date wordpress plugin and exploit in it.

What should you need do then? Simply go to .htaccess file and put “Options – Indexes” on any line and save. The little code prevents your wordpress folders from being accessed by anyone. The second option if you only want to restrict access to some selected folders is just by creating an index.html file and uploading it to your desired folder. Say you just want your plugins folder to be the one unaccessible, then go to it and upload the html file. That simple! 😀

Like what i’ve said for every 10 blogs that I visit, 7 of them are usually unprotected. You could let them know it by sharing this post (or just simply telling them. 😉

Driving Traffic With BlogCatalog

by Melvin · May 9, 2009

Blogcatalog is one heck of a social community website with hundreds of thousands of users everyday. The best thing about the users there is they’re so active. In case you don’t know, blogcatalog is one of biggest traffic referrals on this blog when it was on its earlier stages. Traffic from there is really massive and its just the matter of how you are going to convert them into loyal subscribers.

Well everything started really well with me using blogcatalog until I abused them and I got banned eventually. Anyway right now I am going to share some really good tips to you on how you can get a share of the massive traffic on BG:

Carve out your profile well – It’s funny that a lot of people after signing up don’t even look to edit their profile page. They immediately jump into discussions w/c is wrong. By having a nice written profile, you’re giving yourself a chance to really introduce who you are, what niche you are into and what are your blogs.
Add Friends & Interact – Like any social community, blogcatalog allows you to add friends and grow your own community. The more friends you have the more traffic and readership you would get from it. So take some time to scan profiles there and hopefully interact with them the right way. Add me as your friend. 😉
Discussions – The discussions page probably is the most trafficked part of it. This is a part where there is a free-flowing discussions of literally about everything. Make sure you blend well w/it. If utilized properly it can bring you hundred uniques a day. Don’t be spammy as people there easily remember who adds value and who adds crap! A bad rep is not good!
Join Communities – By joining communities you are putting yourself in a larger scheme of people w/common goals. Examples of the communities there are the “stumble” community, the “make-money-online”, the technorati, the twitter community and a whole lot more.
Paid Sponsorship – There are two options in this one, first is the premium sponsorship w/c costs $60 and the category position ad w/c costs $8 per month. I find the rates really cheap since what you’re getting by having your site there is just too much. I’ve tried the $8 per month on my other blogs and I would say it really converted well. If you have some budget to promote, then I would really recommend this option.

All in all blogcatalog is really a nice social community. You want traffic, you get the traffic! But getting traffic is not the end right? We, as bloggers or marketers have to find our own ways on how we can convert their curiosity to loyalty. How we can convert those first time visits, into returning readers. It’s not about the quantity of traffic, it’s about the quality of it. What do you think?