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My Info Product Has Gone Really Far

by Melvin · Sep 1, 2009

Last June I launched my first ebook about monetizing make money online blogs. That was my first ebook and I personally exerted every ounce of sweat and effort to have that book presentable and useful to everyone. Before that, I am always vocal here in my blog about my take on ebooks and why most of them are just waste of time. I also discussed that for every ebook you buy, the risk is always on you, the buyer.

Anyways I took a sneak peak yesterday at my account and am surprised the ebook has sold that good.(click for a larger look)

I know that “experts’ would actually tell me that describing the no. sales as ‘many’ is a big joke, but who cares? When I was just creating this one, I didn’t even expect that it would get pass 5 sales! Do take note that I don’t have a list or whatever. Most of the $10 sales came from this blog from one post while some came from webmaster forums.

All in all I can pretty much say that its a testimony that reputation by far is the best tool to market something. I mean, not that Im saying I am an expert in this niche but I think with the way I maintained the blog, built its community, pissed off people, and shared useful tips. At the end it eventually paid off.

For those who purchased the ebook, I would feel gratified if you send me your testimonials and even criticisms. Use the contact form and I would be grateful to put your testimonials on some page in the future. For those who are interested in buying, please bypass the salespage and go directly here. But still if you’re interested to see how salespages look like, then feel free to visit the boring salespage. And lastly for those who have questions regarding to the product or to why Stephon Marbury is making himself look crazy please use the comment form below. I am in 3 days rest and would pretty much just waste my time in front of my laptop so I can quickly answer your questions. 😉

Contemplating On A Template Change

by Melvin · Aug 27, 2009

Everytime I ask for a review on forums or wherever, people always retort that my blog looks refreshing. That it looks very calm and tranquil, the color schemes are soothing. The truth is I always thought this is the perfect theme for my blog. Not only that not a lot of people uses it, but its also that I think it suits my personality the most. That’s why I managed to keep it this long even though I always voiced out that its in fact flawed.

But just like everything, changes always happen. Early this week I was looking for a suitable theme that would take over to the former one. A theme change is something that is always refreshing and thats why I always ask people what’s the better theme to place in. Well I wouldn’t make this long as I would show you how the new theme would look like and I would compare it to the old one. Share your insights and be honest: (click the pic for bigger res)

Old and Current Theme:

And the new one I’m planning to implement:

Of course, there is a ton of customization still at hand in case I would apply the new theme. I’m also trying to see if some of the custom things I have on the old one can be imported on the new theme with no hassle. What do you think?

Ooops, Your Logo Might Suck!

by Melvin · Aug 22, 2009

When talking about blog and website designs, the most integral part of it (aside from the template) is the logo. Let me ask you a question. How many websites/blogs get into your mind just by seeing their customized logo? How many online brands do linger on your mind by just getting a glimpse of their logo? The truth is that logos, at some point could either ‘make or break’ your brand.

A lot of people surprisingly, undervalue the impact of it. Some do even prefer not to include a logo to their websites! Let alone the content speak for itself eh? Anyways, if you have a website or blog and don’t have a custom logo then you may want to consider getting one now. If you have one yet a part of your mind is boggling you that it kinda sucks, then you may want to read this post more as this is exactly for you. Ok, you’re logo might suck probably because:

It’s a plain text – Oh yea! Not surprising. Even if you probably use the best looking jargonized font in the world (like Arial?), still its not going to work out, believe me. Some people however do a mix of both text and image and compile them together into a .png or something file. But again if yours’ is plain text, then please change it.
You got it from Google Image Search – There is probably nothing worse than a logo that has been downloaded from Google Image Search, saved into the harddrive and uploaded to the ftp. Holy moly! Not even a kid playing miniclip games would get attracted to that.
You got it for FREE – Ok this one may cause argument and stuffs, but lets face it. Unless you’re as famous as Mr.Chow you wouldn’t get a quality logo that is free of charge. Most good to great designers giving free logos usually got to famous people and thats because they have reason to. If you’re thinking your logo is ugly and remembered that it came free then drop that one please…
It’s Your Face – What the hecking d-bag! I know a lot probably is going to disagree with me anew but unless you are Barack Obama or LeBron James then you should never ever put your face as your logo. I don’t care if you’re as good looking as myself an artist or as ugly as heck but please. What’s my proper reasoning? People don’t care with the owner or the one managing it, they care about the brand, the blog itself. It’s better to recognize an object than a face.
Its in .bmp, .jpg format – Bitmap files are so big and bulky and all of you know it. But why .jpg or.jpeg? Jpg format is usually a quality lower than a .gif or a .png and on some browsers it shows up crappy. Come on, converting that to a more suitable format is not a hard thing to do!
Totally Unrelated – A logo usually portrays what the blog or website is all about. Here in this blog, by just looking at the logo you’d easily get that the blog is a ‘make money online’ blog owned by Melvin right? 😉 Just make sure it connects to your content properly. If youre blogging about basketball then don’t make Eric Cartman as your logo.
It’s Animated – Im a big hater of animated logos and stuffs. Is there any popular website/blog using an animated logo? If none is the answer then I already justified why.

Again, logo is just a part of a site. Most would again run into me saying it’s not the most important. Who says its the most important anyway? Logos are part of designs and design is a part of building an attractive blog/website/online brand. Is there anything that you would like to add?

Why Most Blogs Couldn’t Just Get It Going..

by Melvin · Aug 16, 2009

One reason why the ‘blogging tips’ niche is growing larger and larger and becoming more and more profitable is that because there’s still a huge number of persons/market that consume/need it. It’s no secret that a lot of people who have a blog or who is just trying to have their own blog is seeking to become a problogger, and make tons of money from their blog just like famous guys do. While there is an overflowing of good stuffs and content about blogging, a lot of people still couldn’t have it going.

While the rule of ‘reading too much, implementing less’ still follows, I think still almost 90% of the bloggers are not satisfied with the way their blog is performing. Either they feel they aren’t making that much money, or not a lot of people reads their blog or for whatever reasons. The truth about blogging for fame and for money these days is that providing good stuffs alone is not enough. I have read some blogs with really superb content yet they’re not getting the traffic (I think) they should deserve. They say content is the king but experience and observation tells otherwise. Here are some of the things that I realized why most blogs don’t just fly:

Bloggers are just idiots – No offense to the statement (I was thinking of a better way to express it). What I mean is that everyone starts out from scratch and is an idiot himself. Two to three months later, it’s either that a blogger has learned a lot (hopefully implemented what he learned) or is still an idiot just like when he started. The basic explanation in this is that blogging is like schooling. Some people never get to pass on some levels primarily because of their lack of knowledge (and drive maybe).
Lack of drive and determination – Please do take note that bloggers like Darren Rowse, Shoemoney and Chow had blogged for over a year without being recognized and now look where they are now! I could even testify that making a blog popular and profitable is easier these days rather than before. If you’re entering the blogging business, then make sure you have the necessary juice of determination and patience to keep it going for a long time. Do you really think you can handle blogging for a long time?
Not enough Marketing – Blogging is internet marketing, remember that! Carving out a successful blog includes giving out good content first, then finding a way to reach the most number of audience as possible. Sure it’s not hard to create good content but marketing and promoting what you got is something to really focus on. Content is the king no more! 30% content. 70% marketing.
No clear goal – This one should’ve been written first I guess. Anyway, everytime a person starts a blog and has no goal, it’s like driving without a map or like shooting the basketball with a blind fold. Make sure to set your objectives and goals on blogging. Are you going to just create a personal blog? Are you going to create a flagship blog that would boost your online brand? Or you’re just creating a blog to be flipped soon? Either way, a blogger really has to be clear on this one. Saying ‘I just want to start a blog period” is a retarded statement. Believe me.
Proper funding – Starting a blog is a low-risk investment I must say. But when one does start a blog that he intends to monetize later on, he must understand that a blog may not get its initial income return on it’s 6th month or even a year. I do really feel bad for a lot of my friends who do start it out alright, provides good content and then flop afterwards because of lack of budget. It’s either the site got suspended by its host or the domain just not renewed. $100 for a year is the safe number of budget needed. You’re gonna be needing more of course when you want to fast track your progress.
Afraid of trying Out New Things – Assuming you are NOT one of those things listed above, then you must not be afraid to try out new things. If you have a blog and its consistently getting 50-100 pageviews a day and is doing good interactions, are you just gonna stop there? Why not take your efforts a couple notch higher? Or try to experiment new stuffs? It’s a common misconception that when an experiment fails, expect tons of drawbacks. Don’t be afraid to try untested things, or to do something different. If you fail miserably, then chances are you’d benefit more in the long run, unless you’re an idiot. 😉
Not Building Relationships – In my guest post on ThouShallBlog about using blog as a reputation tool, I stressed how a blog can make you reputable and do a lot of good things more than just making money from it. Blogging is a very large, yet tight and accomodation community. I have met a lot of bloggers, talked with them and shared insights with them. Like any other business, building relationship with other bloggers within your community is a key. If you’re not then you’re missing a lot.

Building a ‘good blog’ takes more work than what you think, yet it’s not as rocket-science as building your own company or making a male baby. Remember the 7 things I listed above and make sure you enjoy what you are doing. If not, then maybe you should re-assessed whether blogging is for you. Feel free to share your own piece please.

What Makes Your Blog “Not Just Another Blog”

by Melvin · Aug 13, 2009

As almost all of you know, there are about over 100 million blogs in the blogosphere. And there will be more in the coming future as most kids/wives/other people will take interest into that especially with over a million blogs telling you can really make money online with your blog. Before school started I have been pretty much reading a lot of blogs related to my niche and alth0ugh I do read many, only few were able to catch my attention. Of course as old adage says “first impression lasts”. Most of the blogs that have caught my attention before are the same blogs that I keep on following so it speaks so much about it.

I would really like to make an emphasis on the importance of leaving a “sticking impression” with the brand of your blog. An impression that doesn’t just make a reader say “just another blog”. In any niche you can see its importance as they normally determine your future followers, subscribers or even customers. So now I put up some things here that make me think a blog is “not just another blog” and is worth following for. Please take note these are all aside from posting a good content which has been rehashed over and over again. 😉 Here they are:

RSS Subscribers – Now this is always hard to achieve when starting out thats why most people will tell you that the hardest part is when starting. But for most sites, I think seeing a blog with over 500+ feed readers make sense to me a lot. It goes to say people are following that blog and for a reason. Last year I was wondering why people are working so much growing their rss subscribers. I even never cared about my blog’s feed fluctuating just between 50-100 before. But now I have realized a lot of things about its importance. So try growing your rss subscribers first then a ton of conversion from curious readers to loyal readers will follow.
Nice layout and design – Design is an integral part of everything. Whether you are promoting a brand or what. Believe me, nowadays design is overcoming good content. There are many blogs right now that just have a “unique custom blog design” and yet they are followed well. I’m not really saying go ahead and go a custom theme (because I myself doesn’t have one), but you see there is always a distinction between a nice theme, simple and minimalistic from ugly and cookie-cluterred one. 🙂
About Page – When I visit a blog and I see a great post, the first thing I do is read the about page of that certain site. Although most people have their own About Me page, not a lot take effort to make it more than just being readable. Personally the About Page means “Why should I subscribe” to me.
Non – Intrusiveness – Ok lets face it, every douche blogger puts an ad on their blog whether its a sponsorship or maybe referral/affiliate links or so. But that doesn’t mean your site is intrusive and not user friendly. Sometimes when I see a blog with a lot of ads (especially in IM niche) and I mean really a lot I come to think “Is this guy really want to make his readers learn making money online, or he just wants to make money from them?”
Interaction – Or more familiarly known as comments. I run a couple of blogs outside this dirty niche and I really love the interaction on some posts. I mean originally a blog really is a form to communicate and share each others views on certain things right? So basically getting to see some interaction in posts really makes a blog a better one. Let’s be honest, we are skeptic to comment if we don’t see a comment before us right? But then its a different case for bigger blogs.

Are you missing out those things? Start working for it now! It may be hard (for some its not seriously) but the rewards are so big! With all the blogs giving their best effort to stand out and gain traction, you may not want to go far behind…

The Real Gold In Entrecard

by Melvin · Aug 8, 2009

Update: This was posted two years ago and I don’t use Entrecard anymore so consider everything here in this post as outdated.

A lot of people really think using Entrecard is useless and they would rather just get rid of it than get frustrated with the way it brings traffic to their own blogs. Although I wouldn’t argue much on how sporadic the traffic from Entrecard can be, I can, however defend that Entrecard has other benefits way more than just a tool for blog promotion. Btw, here’s a screenshot of how Entrecard fared with this blog for a couple of months.

As you can see Entrecard wouldn’t really bring you much traffic and traction directly. In fact a lot of people don’t even reach with over 100 hits with their Entrecard! The real gold within entrecard is on how you utilize the credits. If you look back on it a long time ago, it’s easy to notice that Entrecard has gotten so much better. They started having this ‘cashout’ thing where one can cash out his ec credits. They rebuilt their forums and marketplace w/c makes it more appealing to its users and more importantly they still managed to hold on despite all the critiques they have received the past year.

So how do you utilize your credits? Many, many things. Sponsor a contest with EC? Not possible? You bet it is! How many blogs and sites can start linking to you in exchange for just a couple of thousands credits? How many people would start clicking your link by knowing you sponsored this amount? The truth is, there are endless possibilities. I had few blogs that I’ve seen jumped from 0 to PR3 just by sponsoring couple of contest using Entrecard.

And how about their marketplace? If you haven’t paid a visit in their for quite a while then make sure to do it know. The new EC Market is just not about selling ad spots, reviews, stumbles and diggs or whatever (w/c is what it used to be before). The market also puts up good listings of actual goods that you maybe interested as well. And how about those talented designers who are willing to accept credits for their services? Yes the sky is the limit.

To conclude this one, we can say that Entrecard didn’t really meet up the expectations most people had. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth a look or useless. Like whatever asset, it’s use and value can depend on how one utilizes it. How bout you? What is your experience with entrecard?

Answers To Q and A Round 4..

by Melvin · Aug 4, 2009

So luckily I was able to some find time to write a blog post today (11 pm) and here I am going to post my answers to the questions along with the winners. Sit back and read and enjoy. 🙂

JJ-momscashblog:

Hey Melvin, Here’s one for you I’ve been leaving comments about this everywhere but not in the form of a question. Hey this could be like Jeopardy lol “what do you think the reason for the drop ‘n’ drag in the new version of WordPress is all about? I just can’t figure out why or for what reason someone would even want to drag ‘n’ drop bars or certain contents of WP around? Can you explain this… I’m sure that there are techi people out there that love this feature but why would we want to move things around. Can you explain then maybe I “might” use it! NOT!! Thanks so much Melvin for your kind remarks re: my illness. I’ll be back for the answer part. jj

Melvin: Uhm, I don’t really know how to answer it. I’m afraid I am not knowledgeable nor authorized to speak or give my opinion about it. Sorry to disappoint you. 🙁

Desmond Ong:

This is a great opportunity for me to bash Melvin boy. Hehehe.

Alright get into business. My question is *drum rolls*…

Emma Watson VS Ashley Tisdale – pick one.

Melvin: Ashley Tisdale

Benjamin Cip:

Well… an easy question for you : From where come from my new premium blog design? It’s really an easy answer for you, as I can see the a link on your site that goes to the site I am talking about… I said too much…

Melvin: From PremiumThemes.Net

Developerholic:

I see that you are using Entrecard, how could i full utilize it for my blog to benefit?

Melvin: The truth about entrecard is that a lot of people don’t see the real value behind it. We all know that the traffic that comes from entrecard is either low or junk traffic but the gold isn’t really in there. The gold is on how we utilize the credits. You see, how many links can start pointing at you by just sponsoring a thousand or ten to a contest? or get a professional logo w/just the credits itself? I feel that many people are undervaluing entrecard.

The Bad Blogger:

Ok, here’s the question: How many traffic strategies are you using and show us your traffic “how to” ?

Melvin: Well I’ve been mixing it up. I used to really start at forum interactions and it proved successful as forums probably is one of the biggest referre of traffic for this blog. right now I am more on social media and Im trying to milk the most out of it. To tell you honestly, I try different ways, even insane ways.

Sherry:

Other than write paid post what else can a blogger do to make money online?

Melvin: Sell services. Many people just look at monetizing blogs by direct methods. What most people don’t understand is that there is more money indirectly.

Fast Food Coupons:

Melvin, what is the biggest mistake that you have done on this blog?

Melvin: Honestly now, I don’t think I have done any grave mistakes at all with this blog. 😉

Elmot:

This is my question. or a series of it:

Why is it that you are not really replying to commenters’ comments on your posts. I know that you made a post about commenting and all the faux pas of it…why is it that you are not blog hopping regularly to comment on the post of those loyal readers that you have? Im trying to stalk on you but i can’t see you that much on other blogs, or maybe my radar is not strong enough to catch you. And only when I linked my post to one your posts that you visited a blog to comment (about annoying blogger)…and here is the last one…and despite of all these, you are still earning online?

wow! seems absurd to me, but is a reality actually, ehhehe!

Melvin: (hint: I mostly comment on basketball blogs =p ). well mr. elmot, the truth is I’m really so extremely busy with internship and it eats all the time I have for opening my laptop, asnwering emails, managing entrepreneurial stuffs and reading blogs. Put it this way, I try to comment on as many blogs as I can. It’s true and I would like to make an emphasis on it. I just can’t figure out right now how I can manage my time better. Wait and you’ll see. 😉

——–

That’s a pretty tough q and a session right there as i tried to really justify my answers properly. Anyway the winner of the free 125 X125 for one month is… Elmot. The two winners of the text link at the sidebar are Developerholic and The Bad Blogger. Congratulations people. If you’re ever interested to claim your rewards, kindly use the contact form

Ok, Im sleeping… szzzsszzzz….