Announcements

Why I Pulled Out the MMO Blog Monetizer off the Market

by Melvin · Jun 17, 2010

MMO Blog Monetizer, what a horrible name, isn’t it? Anyways for those of you who just started reading this blog since this year, that is actually my first and only product that I released last year and took off the market after a couple of months. The product is all about monetizing make money online blogs (and other blogs closely related to mmo).

So basically when people ask me why I took it off, I usually respond that its because Im going to use it for larger project and of course to avoid saturation. Do you actually believe it? Heck, that is a marketer’s reason always! I mean you see products that are taken off the market and there’s always a reason/s why it happens. And it’s always related to business.

Anyways those two reasons I mentioned are true and I didn’t lie (or perhaps I did) when I said that. However that’s just 5% of the whole story. And in this somewhat controversial post, im going to detail to you the other reasons why I took it off the market.

My First Info Product

That MMO Blog Monetizer thing is my first info product. As i’ve always expressed here in my blog, I’m quite allergic with info products. In my post entitled “Does reading eBooks really help you make money“, I ripped off most eBooks and basically claimed that when you purchase one, don’t expect anything.

I followed that post with a how to steal an eBook post in which I outlined several ways on how most marketers are retarded for just exposing their products without them knowing it. So it’s kind of ironic for me to start my own product especially if its an info product right?

Anyways, the first reason is that my eBook sucks. Nope, not that its of crap value and not that I received gazillions of refunds. I re-read the book after 6 months and it’s really bad in formatting, kind of disorganized, text are not spaced-out well. I didn’t use that much image and I have some crappy grammatical errors, name them!

So what I eventually had in mind was that I’m going to close it out because I don’t want people to make fun of my eBooks crappiness, formatting-wise. Although no one has really complained with the crappiness of the product, I’d like to make sure that I need to work harder on that aspect more and so I decided to take it off and seek professional advice more on that side.

Not the Easiest product to Comprehend

Most first-time info marketers really make this mistake. They tend to create their products for themselves, considering themselves as their audience. Again the takeaway on marketing something is that “we are not our customer” and it applies to creating info products as well.

Actually I re-read the eBook a couple of times as well as have some of my friends read it for me. We did some editing and thought it was all fine already. Eventually it was not. I used a lot of jargons that were hard for some readers to understand.

This is really one of the hardest things for me. I’m never good at walking people through on basic stuffs that I oftentimes just butcher it completely. The downside for me was that I got a lot of support questions from people since the product was really hard to understand especially for noobs.

It’s expensive

Yes it is. It was priced at $14 for a 17 page eBook and some bonuses. Now I don’t want to tell the product doesn’t have good quality. It has, and that is one of the things Im proud with. But with that, I realized I need to throw in some other couple of valuable stuffs to make it the perfect product.

These days, most product claim that their product is more than what its worth. That was where I failed before. I should’ve added more than just the core product.

Timelessness

And of course just like anything, things get outdated. The main reason why MassControl and Traffic Secrets have 2.0 versions is because they were updated and most of the content inside were catered for the time it was released.

That’s my same goal with that product. Its funny because I threw in a ton of coupon codes inside only to realize that they were already not working anymore. Some of the screenshots were also old-ish so that was I was trying to achieve with that.

MMO 2.0 – Watch out!

And if you got a sense from the beginning of reading this article that I am about to expose something in the end, then you’re right. 😉 I’m currently working out super hard on producing the 2.0 version of the product. I’m eliminating and improving all of the flaws I mentioned above and I’m sure you will like it better than LA Lakers capturing the NBA Title.

I may give this product away for FREE or may not. I may sell this for lower pricing or higher pricing. There’s a lot of uncertainties right now but two things are sure. One is that it’s going to be of perfect quality and second is that people who are gonna opt-in to the early bird waiting list will get massive discounts and tons of good value bonuses and throw-ins. Get inside now!

Post Note: MMO 2.0’s early list is different from the blog’s mailing list so make sure you get in. 😉

What My Readers Are Saying With the Free Report

by Melvin · Jun 15, 2010

Not so long ago, I gave away my first “freemium” product on blogging which is all about marketing blogs competitively. The book was titled “Blog Marketing for Fame” and its a little report where I tackled several ways to make your blog popular by employing creative and competent strategies.

So like any other marketer/blogger, I immediately seek their opinion about the product and so far so good. 😉

Vic Soriano says:

Your report is indeed very much informative. I am amazed at your writing skills and would love to meet you in person one day. I am much older than you are but I am learning a lot from you. Continue sharing your knowledge and being a blessing to others that God may bless you even more!

SantoshKumar B says:

yeah it was beneficial n i find it nesessary for future work..thankss..

Elie Palima says:

The ebook was Great. I learned alot. thanks! 😉

I like the idea about guest blogging. actually I’ve thought about it a lot for quite sometime now.

Brook says:

Sound strategies but very advanced tactics. I like the way you pointed out guest blogging and creative advertising. I find it all innovative

Now I don’t want to fill this post with testimonials for the poor sake of bragging. This is entirely risk-free, you just sign up with the newsletter, get your copy and then read it. If you don’t like it, fine, you can delete it w/no problem at all. But I’m sure if you pay attention well to the product, you can actually benefit a lot from it.

Well just to clarify, the free eBook is just an icing. By subscribing to the newsletter, the main benefit you are going to get is the insider tips, premium email newsletter and case studies that I don’t usually publish here in this blog. Those are really good stuffs and in fact, I’m even considering on selling those insider messages someday as a paid product.

Lastly, the newsletter is entirely me sending you good stuff, not some random guy or a part of the staff (unlike some big marketers). You can see that I’m even using my personal email so any time you feel like replying or clarifying something from the newsletter, I’d be able to help up asap. 🙂 So make sure you’re in!

Do make sure you’re not missing the newsletter or maybe if you have already downloaded the product, make sure to give your take as well.

Best Blog Marketing Tip Contest Updates & Clarifications

by Melvin · Jun 9, 2010

So last week I launched probably one of the biggest contest in blogging history and so far I’m receiving awesome feedbacks and some suggestions as well. As I’ve said, no contest is perfect and suggestions like this can only improve the contest and make it much more enjoyable.

In a span of a week, the contest official post has become one of the most viewed pages in the blog for this year! It’s amazing that it even got retweeted by big bloggers like Neil Patel and John Chow.

But that being said, there is only a couple of entries yet for the contest. In my opinion, I think it coincides with the fact that the contest will run still up to July 15 and most “wise” bloggers would prefer to observe and speculate first before joining. While it’s a wise and clever tactic, I may have to say that starting the contest early is still the BEST way to get it done. Why? Because by doing it early, you will get more traffic, more social media exposure, more retweets, comments and more importantly you can still improve your article based on feedbacks. But then still its up to you.

Another issue I’d like to clear is on whether traffic from blog is a huge part or not. Actually its not. It accounts for less than 30% and I did that thing because I know there are many blogs out there who don’t have that much traffic, yet are writing good content. Remember that we have judges and 70% of the criteria is about the quality. I know most of the recent contests give emphasis on promotion but as I’ve said, the goal of this contest is more on giving back to the blogosphere.

Second, I usually receive the question “What if I don’t have the best blog marketing tip?”

To be honest, is there really is? Perhaps yes, but it’s really all about trying to become creative and intercepting that and the need of your readers. If you can do that I can pretty much guarantee that it is going to be a recipe for success.

You see blogging is not new anymore. You can find soooo many marketing topics already covered around the internet. I’m not saying you should read and rehash those articles, what I’m implying is that you have to be innovative. For me most of the articles on the subject is either incomplete and unclear or is badly outdated.

It’s like essay, give your best shot because there’s no best answer. That’s why we have judges.

And lastly, it doesn’t have to be a walkthrough. I know most of us are psyched that long article means good quality. It is, but that doesn’t mean that you have to write a 2000ish word article to qualify. If a 500-word article can do it, then Im fine with that. Right now most bloggers are not newbies anymore so if you can eliminate all the super detailed noob info stuffs, then good.

And here’s the FAQ I set up specifically just for this one:

The contest will run for how long?

It will run from June 1 up to July 15 12 AM ET

Is there any requirement aside from writing articles?

You have to link back to the contest post so I can track your entry.

How if a trackback isn’t generated?

That happens in rare cases but if it ever does, just comment on my blog or hit me up personally.

Any hardened-fast rules on the article where going to make?

None. Just make sure its your best blog marketing tip. 😉

How many winners are going to be selected?

There will be 3 winners from the main writing contest and 10 winners on the retweet contest. As said in the contest post, there are going to be mini contests in the middle of the duration so watch out

Can I bribe a judge to make me win?

Yes, if you know them. 😉

Do I have to comment on the post?

No, its not required

Is retweeting a mandatory condition to win the contest?

No. It’s another contest.

If I don’t like the prize can I convert it to cash?

Essentially no. But the safer answer is it depends on the sponsor.

Can I make a series post instead of the usual one long post?

Yes. Whatever you want it will be just fine

When is the deadline for submitting entries?

July 15 12 AM Eastern Time

Do I have to link out to all the sponsors?

Definitely not.

If you have any more concerns, do so here in the comment form. All relevant questions will be added in this FAQ page

MelvinBlog’s Best Blog Marketing Tip Contest

by Melvin · May 31, 2010

Update: This contest has been extended up to July 25. For more info, read here:

It has finally come. Today I am bringing you probably the largest contest in the history of MelvinBlog Dot Com. This contest commemorates the second year of this blog (funny how I thought its 3 years) and as I’ve planned, we’ll celebrate it with a big bang!

I have been preparing this contest since early last month and I want to make sure that my contest is going to be different. Different in the sense that first, it will add a HUGE value to the blogosphere and second, that every blogger, big or small has an equal chance of winning. I’m very proud to have had this contest finally polished.

Introducing the MelvinBlog’s Best Blog Marketing Tip Contest

This contest says it all. The contest will be about blog marketing which is part of what this blog tackles on an everyday basis. The idea of the contest came after I witnessed (and won) the same type of contest held by Market Leverage w/c is entitled Affiliate Marketing Secrets Contest. I’d like to first and foremost thank and introduce to you guys my media partner slash sponsor for this one. It is Fergal Crawley of the Business Advice Forum who will be handling all the promotions and stuffs for this contest. By the way Business Advice Forum is a good community forum giving out free business advice both to online and offline business forums. Its a nice forum so I highly suggest for you to check it out.

And to the sponsors. I can’t believe we were able to get this much prize for the contest. Compared to last year’s contest, we basically doubled the amount of the prizes and Im really thankful for the sponsors for that. As you know me, I just don’t get every Dick and Harry as sponsors. We got reputable and popular internet marketers as well as established companies that backed us up in this contest and again I’m giving them my biggest appreciation for helping out.

Contest Mechanics

So this contest like I’ve said is a creative writing contest. In order to gain an entry, the blogger/contestant has to write a blog post on his blog about his best blog marketing tip. That certain blog post accounts for 1 entry. Each blogger can submit up to 5 entries all throughout the duration of the contest. There is no rule aside from that the post has to be original, must never have been copied somewhere.

Each entry has to link back to this contest post so I can track all the entries. The link bank can either be in the beginning or at the end of the post. To be uniform with everyone, you can just copy and paste this line:

This post is an entry to MelvinBlog’s Best Blog Marketing Tip contest where there are $2000 worth of prizes at stake.

There will be 3 winners overall and they are gonna get determined by two factors: quality of posts, and popularity. In terms of quality, I have hired 4 judges who are gonna gracefully judge all the entries. I really like to disclose their names but I was told its better not to. Popularity on the other hand, is just about the no.of retweets and comments. So to increase your entries’ popularity, you have to at least give maximum exposure to it (letting it in front for more days means better). Lastly, the criteria is 70 to 30, the higher one goes for quality while the latter is for the popularity.

The popularity factor which is 30% hinges on few metrics which include the no.of retweets of that certain post and amount of comments. I’d like to point out that the popularity criteria is just 30% because I want to give a fair chance of winning especially to those smaller bloggers.

Just for this mechanics alone, I have created a sample entry located of course on my personal blog. (this is just a sample). You can use it as a reference.

Prizes

A little side note: Like in the previous year’s contest, I don’t want to boast just the value of the prizes based on its financial worth. I’m sure there are a lot of eBooks out there thrown for $1000 and by giving 5 copies, it would already be $5000 worth of prizes in a contest, lols. Fortunately, this is not. Like last year, I tried to gather the best prizes from the best people in this space. So just by looking on who they are you will know what I mean. 😉

1st Place – Total at stake = $877

6 months free for the standard package of CrazyEgg valued at $19 a month – $114 value
1 character design courtesy of LogoNerds – $97 value
1 multi-use package of Themewars premium theme – $70 value
WordPress SEO service courtesy of ShoutMeLoud.com – $250 value
1 First Class Package of Ultimate Blogging Theme 3.0 – $147 value
1 license of OIO Publisher – $47 value
$20 cash from FamousBloggers.com – $20
6 months free Web hosting courtesy of MelvinBlog.com – $45 value
1 copy of Killer Domains eBook by Daniel Scocco – $17 value
Premium Interview featured here in MelvinBlog.com – $70 value

2nd Place – Total at stake = $504

$50 cash and one year PRO membership for MyBlogGuest – $170 value
1 copy of Blogussion Thesis theme package – $46 value
1 character design courtesy of LogoNerds – $97 value
1 license of OIO Publisher – $47 value
1 copy of Crowbar Content courtesy of Buzz Marketing guru Dean Hunt – $97
1 copy of Killer Domains eBook by Daniel Scocco – $17 value
$15 cash from BlogTactic
1 copy of 70 Posting Ideas courtesy of Liane – $15

3rd Place – $302

1 copy of Gab Fire Theme – $59 value
1 year membership for ElegantThemes -$19
$15 cash, one advertising space and one copy of Facebook ad coupon eBook valued at $15 courtesy of Smartbloggerz.com – $54 total value
1 copy of Easy Blog Traffic worth $59, Insider SEO Revealed at $39 and Twitter Marketing Power worth $57 courtesy of WebTrafficROI.com
1 copy of Thirtyday blog eBook by Jimvesting – $15 value
1 copy of 70 Posting Ideas courtesy of Liane – $15

Retweet Contest

Due to some demands and also taking this advice from some of my blogger friends’, I would be running a totally separate contest on Twitter which is all about marketing this contest through Twitter. So in order to enter the retweet contest all you have to do is retweet this post using the tweetmeme button above or copying this text and pasting it directly to your twitter:

“RT @melvinblog, Best Blog Marketing Contest, win over $2000+ in REAL prizes http://bit.ly/bestblogcontest pls RT “

You can modify the text or do it your own way, just make sure you append the @melvinblog reply so I can easily track all the entries. This small contest would run the same as the main contest and would end after one and a half months so do keep on tweeting. At the end of the duration, 10 lucky entries will be drawn and will receive each of the following:

1 copy of Blogussion Thesis theme package – $46 value
1 copy of Gab Fire Theme – $59 value
1 multi-use package of Themewars premium theme – $70 value
3 copy of Killer Domains eBook by Daniel Scocco – $51 value
1 copy of Social Media Marketing Book & Youtube Made Simple Video Series courtesy of WebTrafficROI
3 copy of Thirtyday blog eBook by Jimvesting – $60 value

Some Secret Contests

To add another layer of excitement (or confusion, whichever you prefer), I’d like to include some other contests that may go live along the way. Not really secret, but more of short contests within the main contests, that can make this whole thing more exciting and the best is that it gives more opportunity for the participants to win.

So lets say, you don’t have a tip. Still you can join the retweet contest and some secret contests that I am going to throw as well. So what’s the best way not to miss these other exciting hidden contests? Well make sure you’re subscribed to the blog, so you don’t miss anything out. 😉

Duration & Other Rules

The contest would run for one a half months and it will end on July 15th 12 am ET. After that date, no more entries will get accepted so make sure you start working on your entries right now. Also please give us 5-7 days max to compute all the stats and announce the winners (patience is virtue my friend).

Questions, Clarifications, Suggestions?

No contest is perfect, most are faulty especially at the start. If you have anything to ask, clarify, suggest or criticize, feel free to do so in the comment form. Remember that good contests are good not mainly because of the prizes, but also with the participation from the audience like you. 😉

I will reserve this space for other rules which I dont have at the moment. But Im sure this comment box will get populated as soon as possible. And that would only be probable, if you start asking questions now. 😉

Note: An update and clarification on contest was published here. It also contains the official FAQ

If a Contest Has Over $2000 in Real Prizes, Will you Join?

by Melvin · May 27, 2010

How you doin? Well uhm today I just like to get some buzz through my contest. 😉 Also I’d like to ask a couple of questions as well.

First is, if I am about run a contest with $2000+ at stake, will you join (competitively)? A little sidenote: by saying $2000+, what I mean here are real prizes. Im not the guy who asks Dick or Harry to sponsor 200 copies of their $10 cheesy eBook and add that up to the total. 🙂

Second question, if you see that these are the people who will be sponsoring my contest, are you convinced enough to join?

Most people’s answer is obviously a big YES (with a grin). But if you do, will you promise you’ll join competitively and not be lazy like most of the contestants who join contests and never win?

</end of buzz>

P.S. Many of my friends think the banner sucks? does it really?

Upcoming Blog Contest & Call for Sponsors

by Melvin · May 14, 2010

Hey you!

It’s been a while isn’t it?

Times flies really quick and I can’t believe this blog is turning 2 years old already. If you remember, there was a huge contest here in this blog last year in w/c it really got a lot of traction. It also attracted enormous prizes from sponsors which are mostly reputable marketers and bloggers in this space and some of the best affiliate networks.

This year I am looking to start one, actually its getting closer. I’m sure you’ve been noticing there has been a lot of contests going on right now with exceptional prizes as well. That alone urged me to start a contest for this blog, considering its turning 2 years now so why not celebrate it with a bang?

It’s gonna be a writing contest

The days where a contest is composed of subscribing to feed, following on twitter, doing this thing, blah blah are all long over. I mean those contest don’t really add that much value both the blogosphere and to the sponsors (guilt kill 🙂 )

So I don’t really want to disclose as much details right now but rest assure it’s a writing contest. Nope its not the “in” guest blogging contest thing. Its more of a creative writing contest, or not really creative. 😉

The reason I chose that is because I want to give back to the blogosphere more than I want to get more exposure for this blog. I mean, this blog has almost 5000 comments, 100 some thousand pageviews and made me good money so why not make a contest where everyone is a winner?

Be one of the Sponsors

That being said I’m looking for quality sponsors. I already have a couple of high-profile marketers who generously sponsored something of good value. But I’d like to get as much as I could and so i am reaching out here in my blog.

I’m looking preferably for cash sponsorships via Paypal but if you have a good (reputable) product/tools or service you are offering, I might consider that as well. Again I’m looking for quality ones, I’d like to be fair since some of the sponsors really gave good ones.

There are three sponsorship packages, the gold sponsor, silver and bronze sponsors. The package you are gonna get into would largely depend on the perceived value of the price of the prize you are sponsoring. Let’s say LeBron James sponsored a shoe and D-Wade sponsored an underwear. Definitely the former one would be presented as a gold sponsor while the latter one, a bronze sponsor.

Here in MelvinBlog, I just don’t link back as a main exposure for the sponsors. The blog receives quite a good consistent traffic but I want to reach out more and give better ones. The sponsors are the main and sole reasons why contests happen and if not for them we, small bloggers couldn’t really afford to do it all. Here are the descriptions.

Gold Sponsorships

Better brand awareness by having their company logo’s on the contest page and on the blog’s home page and subpages. The logo would consist of an image of their company/blog/website.
Dofollow link back to the site both on the contest page and on the announcement of the winners page.
Short description of what the product or website is
Inclusion of the logo on Twitter Background

Silver Sponsorships

Inclusion of the logo on Twitter Background
Dofollow link back to the site both on the contest page and on the announcement of the winners page.
Short description of what the product or website is

Bronze Sponsorships

Dofollow link back to the site both on the contest page and on the announcement of the winners page.
Short description of what the product or website is

As you can see, each sponsorship opportunities yields different exposures that you can get from the blog. So the better the prize, the better exposure. 🙂

There ya go! Of course you are my reader, so I would always be open to your questions, suggestions, criticisms and etc. Fire them away!

Getting Subscribed to Email Poll Result & Announcements

by Melvin · Apr 4, 2010

A couple of weeks back I’ve written a post asking you, my readers on your personal take on automatic comment subscription. For those who haven’t read that post, I basically tackled how automatic comment subscription was not really that evil and annoying and it’s interesting to see different people’s view about it. I also openly stated that I may use that tactic depending on the result of the poll and here’s the result.

[poll id=”5″]

First off I was quite surprise with the low no.of participants in the said poll and maybe next time I would move the poll widget higher in the sidebar. Anyways, the result was close. 51% voted for “its not fine with me” while 49% (including me) voted for “it’s fine with me”. Overall there were less than 50 votes and it’s tough to make a decision when the outcome is that close.

Aside from the poll result itself, I also considered the post comments and to be honest, those comments gave me some good perspectives as well. Obviously people have mixed opinion towards that topic and its nice to learn why some people feel its annoying, why some like it and why others think its completely retarded. That have helped me make a better decision I guess.

Final Verdict

Since your opinion, by far is the most important thing here I considered NOT to implement the automatic comment subscription. HOWEVER, the checkbox on comment subscription is checked by default. So if you’re not at all interested on receiving those annoying emails from me, make sure you unchecked the box before submitting your comments. Again it’s checked by default and theres a reminder below that will constantly remind you guys about it.

I hope that my decision is for the majority. I know I can’t serve everyone but whats important is that I please the majority. What do you think guys? Did I make the better move or am I annoying the heck out of you? 🙂