MelvinBlog

A blog that chronicles my journey on online marketing, blogging, social media, technology and life.

Melvin

Free Ad Spot, Free Text Links, Are They Really Worth It?

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Even when I first started this blog, I was seeing a lot of sites and blogs offering and giving away free advertisements in form of text links, 125X125 ad or whatever. Some people are even reluctant to give them away in contests or as an incentives like this blog for example (the incentivized q and a sessions). But the most common trend nowadays, is contests which claims to have $XXXX in advertising galores. Of course, its easy to say “I’m going to sponsor this spot worth $XX”.  And saying that it worths that way doesn’t really mean it’s really the value of that.

Well don’t get me wrong, I am not against those stuffs and contests, sponsors that give away these things. In fact I do even sponsor something here as well in form of an adspot. But my point here is that, these free adspaces can really give you a nice estimate of how much you are really getting w/advertising. I mean, an adspot oftentimes is priced higher than the value it gives but one thing to keep in note when you advertise is not just the clickthroughs you are getting, remember that more than the clicks is what is called as “brand awareness”. Most of the time, people come to my site and tell me “I am seeing your site’s “my blog sucks” slogan on most forums and blogs so I just thought I would give you a visit” And actually thats it. Brand recognition is like you want to get all people reading that blog to know that you have a website. This way people will be more aware of your brand/product and believe me it helps in the long run.

So what about the free adspaces you keep on receiving day in and day out? My advice is always take a chance to use it. You don’t need to expect something “good” that quick with it, but then there will come a time wherein all the readers and commenters of that blog will also start commenting on yours and start following your blog. And of course, its always nice to get something for free, even if it seems to be of trivial value. 🙂

Finally I Can Get Back W/Blogging

Finally I Can Get Back W/Blogging

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It seems to be like years ago when I last posted here! I just had tough times right now with me being sick, exams coming in, and well my monitor exploded. 😉

Anyway it seems that I have been recovering well from that pulmonary infection that has been bothering me since last week. Right now, I feel better and more better w/myself. Also I am up in to the last week of this trimester for my school and exams are coming in. The dreaded Application Project and System ANalaysis and Design defense has been over and thank God.

Also i have spent some moolah which was all planned for Christmas, for a new monitor (LCD) after the previous CRT announced its death. Anyway, before the CRT, I had another LCD which the adaptor exploded. I tried finding for the adaptor of that certain LCD but I just couldn’t. This is my third monitor in three years and oh how I hope it goes to last for lifetime. 🙂 The best thing is I can continue watching southpark episodes right now.

Also I was very elated to finally have received my Copeac’s check accounting for $1127 which should’ve been sent way earlier. The check was in commission until September 30 and it only came two days ago. It’s nice to finally have it on my hand as I immediately  deposited it into well, my mom’s bank account. I was too unfortunate not to have an own dollar account so I have to always go to the account’s settings and change the payee’s name to my mothers name. In that way, a check doesn’t really seem to be mine. 🙁  Anyway I wasn’t able to take a pic of the real cheque because its already in the bank but I managed to take a picture of the depositors copy (which is the latter part of the check being cut out and thrown straight to the thrash can)

Answers On Q and A And Some Things To Say

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So these past days (including now), I’ve been into bed as I was suffering from pulmonary diseases and fever and flu which makes me indisposed. By the way these are last months top commentators(3) which will receive a free month long link to this site:

  • Ajith Eddasery
  • ZK
  • Ganesh

For the questions and assholes which i nearly forgot, here they are:

Harish:

Here is my question

Is Affiliate Marketing the only way you make money,If not what are the other ways you make money??

Melvin: No. I do make money from this blog as well and also on my basketball blog. Before I used to try a lot of making money strategies but now I focus more on affiliate marketing.

Ajith Eddasery: Question: Do you think stuffing ‘hot’ keywords (like the one here :lol:) in blog post titles would really help?

Melvin: I don’t really know but I think it helps! 🙂 I never really planned that “asshole” word but then I was just typing and it came to my mind. But anyway, w/regards to titles I think it helps because it baits people to actually read the post.

Royle: The New York Knicks has traded its two best player this season, what are your thoughts about it?

Melvin: Seriously, at first its a dickhead trade for me. I mean the Knicks started 6-3 and they all of a sudden traded their two top performing players. I know its for long term plan but then they could’ve just waited for the latter part of the season before pulling the trigger. Now they are 7-9 so it definitely hurted them this season but will surely benefit them on future.

ZK: what is a saleable category or niche for affilliate marketing

Melvin: Anything outside internet marketing! I mean you see guys like shoemoney make a lot w/ringtones. Some do exceptional w/adult niche. I do well w/dating and some email submits. It really depends I think and it also depends on the events like for example the election last month.

Pradeep: How do you address a situation,where in you are a blogger and your girlfriend hates blogging

Melvin: I seriously do not know. If I have a gf that hates blogging then I will surely hate my gf like she hates blogging! 🙂

Farrhad: How much impact does a blog’s design have on you?
Is blogging your main source of income? How much do you earn per month?
How important is networking for a blog’s success?

Melvin: Design is always an important factor. My blogs design isn;t superb but I feel it manages to stand out because of its refreshing look. No, not my main income. I make 3 figures per month and it fluctuates like crazy. networking is important just as like how every business needs it

Desmondblog: My name is Desmond and that’s why I chose to name my blog at DesmondBlog.com. Did you pick the domain name “MelvinBlog.com” the same way as I do?

Melvin: Well, I believe melvinblog was born earlier than desmondblog (you were holding grademoney.com then, if im not wrong). Anyway yes is the answer. I always want to rank no.1 for the term melvin. 🙂

JR: How much thought and time did you put into thinking up the title of this post? LMAO, best one I’ve seen in a while.

Melvin: Like what Ive said, I just put it in because it is what came into my mind. I always write stuffs spontaneously so thats why. 😉

Blog For Beginners: When I started thoushallblog.com, your name is pretty famous around the blogosphere but you’ve been really quite as of late, any particular reason for that?

Yan

Melvin: Im not really famous! Its because of school probably thats why I have to devote lesser time with blogging. Gotta prioritize things and do what weighs heavier.

That’s it. I believe Farrhad and ZK got the best question and you will get a month long 125X125 ad on my site for free! Just send me the image and the link at melvin@ (my domain). Again, I needed to take time to recover from a sickness so I may stop posting for the mean time. On my next post I would also like to talk about the “rumors” that this blog is for sale or wtf! Watch out! 😉

What Image Does Your Blog Portray?

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When we first create our blog we set our niche, what is our topic all about, who is our target audience and etc. We don’t really dwell with what image does the blog really portray. As our blog gets older, we started to notice that “ah this blog is something like this” or “this blog’s jokes aren’t that funny” and so on. I think this is what our blog can be remembered for when they died. In short, this what makes the blog unique. For some reason, it could also be the reason why people are following you. Maybe they like a perverted blog or a blog that has a horrible grammar.

And its nice to see that whenever you look at each blog, you see what their images are. You head on to problogger and you see a blog that is very professional. No nonsense posts, no crappy paragraphs, all (seems) done to perfection. Go on to Chow’s blog and you’ll see a completely contrasting one. “Evil” full of affiliate links, 35% only are the helpful posts and so on. But on the flip side, it flows more natural, everyone can relate to it and you can learn a lot outside making money online. Now I’m not just talking about Big blogs here. Head on to smaller blogs and you’ll see some other too.

Now it goes on at the top of my mind and said to myself “What the heck does my blog portray?” “Why are people following me?” Sure I don’t provide solid money making tips as other bloggers do and I don’t claim this blog as a make money online as well. I was just like writing what is on my mind for the certain moment. Whenever I look at my archives (I always does), and see my past posts and read them, what I see common about them is how spontaneous the posts are. Sure people can rip me for saying i don’t pay attention to grammar and I don’t proofread and I don’t care to fix my previous page link and I don’t care to cloak links but then its like most of my readers like it here. The funny thing is that some of the most viewed/commented posts here aren’t related to internet marketing like this one.

Oh well. All in all my blog is just portraying an image an 18 year old intelligent student who has ton of interest w/making living of Google and the internet, someone who thinks he’s a great basketball player and a guy who’s deeply in love, attracted w/a girl named krishtalyn at the moment. What about your blog? I have my own thing on how each blog portrays themselves but more likely its better if it comes out in your own mouth first. 🙂

The December WidgetBucks Experiment

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When I tried Widgetbucks almost a year ago, I had great hopes that it can make me more money than Adsense. The truth is it really did! 2 weeks after joining widgetbucks I was banned from Adsense for what they called “gaming” them! I made about a nice $31 on one of my sites back then. But well widgetbucks just dont blend well w/my sites. The widgets drastically make my sites slower to load and most people are pissed w/it.

Until November, when widgetbucks made a makeover and they did email everyone about their rvamped network. So I gave it a go to this blog and you can see it running at the right bottom part. Basically what convinced me to put this into it is the fact that we are close to holiday and people are likely interested with holiday/christmas items like Christmas trees and so on. Also companies are giving out massive discounts and fire sales for great products so its easy to have their attention.

Anyway widgetbucks pays on two types. First is for clicks. They pay some pennies per click if the clicks are from US and Canada I believe. They also pay on a CPM basis for most countries I believe but it varies. Say for every thousand impression for US, their’s an ecpm of over $2 while in Asia not even a dollar per thousand mille. Again its on per impression not uniques and i believe me getting 60,000 pageviews and about 40,000 on US traffic, is fair! Let’s see how far this thing will go!

Widgetsucks gives a free $25 on signup but again the thrill is that you have to make $25 more to be into the minimum of $50 payout. Most newbies tend to be attracted with free signups but never managed to get into cashing it out.

Question And Asshole Round 2

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I have been all too stucked w/doing a system for a certain company w/my friends and I don’t have any choice but to do the mainstream q and a… Again you can ask this and that and this and that. Basically all questions can be asked but if I dont feel to answer that one then I will not! Best question would net $10 again and 2 others will get a free month long link worth $5…

So fire away/…

Why Some People Get Affiliate Referrals So Easy

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Most of you here are bloggers and when you started months ago or even until today you place some affiliate links on your blog. On the sidebar, maybe in posts or in footers/headers. But well to be honest, I’m sure we’re all not getting the referrals we thought we could get when we were starting out. The truth about it is that you will really get low conversions on referrals and thats the bitter truth about it. People nowadays, because of information overload or maybe what you can call it, have become skeptic on things like these. Not so long ago you can do a review of something w/your affiliate link and have people jump on the bandwagon immediately. But then its different now.

Saying it doesn’t mean you can’t do anything about it. 🙂 Of course there are ways to increase affiliate earnings from your blog. This is different so to speak with the whole affiliate marketing but I believe affiliate links on blogs can itself buy you a shirt and shoes every month. W/o further adieu, here are the tips:

  1. Don’t make them sign, if you yourself haven’t made money w/it. – this is mostly the case a lot of people don’t get. Ok they’ve read this program pays $10 per signup, then they sign w/it, promote the program itself and say to their readers “this program is great and you should try” but the real reason is that it gets them $10 which I feel is cheap. I believe if you can show people your account or how you’ve fared w/them, then you can more likely encourage them to sign up under you. Like here, you’ve seen me made some posts w/pepperjamnetwork. Apart from me getting nearly $20 on every posts of it, is that I really make money w/them even outside this blog( and bigger amount). They’ve had some nice dating offers and I had a lot of campaigns w/them before so I promote them. Show proofs!
  2. Have a Nice Rep First – As I’ve said earlier, its hard to make tons referrals from blogs. But make no mistake w/guys like Zac Johnson and some other big affiliate bloggers. I mean Zac is earning a thousand dollars from affiliate earnings from his blog alone! Why? Because he’s a super affiliate! Its the human psychology that when they see someone making a lot with something, they tend to think that hopefully they can too w/the same program the person is using. And I believe Zac uses a lot of affiliate networks to make a living so just guess how many people signs on almost all program under him. Again it helps for you to have a great rep first.
  3. Be transparent and honest – Wth my ancient post about whether you are signing under aff.links or not, I mentioned that if it really gives out value, then I signed through the link. I mean the guy who showed me that must be compensated for the thing right? Most people want to cloak links, mask them and try to look it natural. But I got to differ. I am a big believer that people don’t care if its an affiliate link or not. Some bloggers even say, that the certain link is an affiliate link. If you have the former 2 things mentioned above, I dont see the need for not being transparent.

This blog hasn’t really made thousands of affiliate referrals every month. But then for me to see it makes hundreds and see people saying “I will sign under you” is something that makes me feel well. Not all that worked for me will work for them and I know by being too good to be true and to honest w/my posts, they understand it well.