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MyBlogGuest Review: Promote Your Brand by Guest Posting

by Melvin · Feb 14, 2010

This is a paid review sponsored by Ann Smarty of MyBlogGuest.com

Just in case you‘re living inside a hollow cave, you probably aren‘t aware yet that guest posting is the most powerful FREE way to get a blog known. By far, it’s a very powerful tactic that can get your blog brand across a wide range of audience. In my free eBook called Blog Marketing for Fame (get your copy now!) I stressed so much how it made my blog grew that quick.

For today, Ann Smarty pinged me last week to do this review of her site called as MyBlogGuest. I‘ll drive straight into the site and will now discuss what it is all about and its functionalities. So basically MyBlogGuest is a forum where you can find guest posters and fellow bloggers. The idea behind it is to build a community of guest posters that will collaborate with each other. In the end, it should be a win-win situation for everyone.

Site‘s Design & Aesthetics

At first look, you actually wouldn‘t think it‘s a forum and for me the only time I realized it was a forum was when I already completed filling out my profile. The site‘s layout is very simple yet it doesn‘t look like an ancient website. The forum itself is small yet is very targeted to guest bloggers. I personally like it because being targeted, you get to squeeze every benefit from it and will no longer need to avoid forum lurkers who just annoy members.

Another unique part is the categories and tags page. While you can browse each thread to find out your interest, you can also benefit a lot by sorting the blogs by categories. For example, MelvinBlog Dot Com is inside the internet marketing category so all you have to do is to pick your niche/category and you would immediately see blogs which are talking on the same stuffs. It also works the same with tags where you can specify the tags that your blog uses.

Functionality and Benefits

As I’ve said I’m a fan of small yet tight communities. MyBlogGuest isn’t like other forums which are mostly cluttered. As I was browsing different topics (there are just mainly 5 topics), I noticed that the members are supportive of each other. Ann was also out there responding and collaborating with the members. There was even a “Help Needed” topic there where you can go out and request for social media votes.

Another thing Ann mentioned is that they would try to keep the quality as high as possible. The forum has made it easy to report people who violate the rules, or those who don’t follow the guidelines of guest posting. So if you go out there and try to game the system, then more likely you are gonna get banned.

Lastly there’s also another part w/c is called Blog Round Ups where Ann would feature the best guest posts arranged through the forum in her blog. Although I don’t think it’s a huge feature, it can still help you get traffic especially if your blog is just getting started.

The Bad & Ugly, Some Suggestions

Well not really bad and ugly, I just can’t figure out a good title, lols. The one thing I don’t like is the quality of blogs in there. In fact I’ve seen people requesting for guest posts on a blog with an Alexa 1 million rank but it’s understandable and it’s the inevitable part of this feature. But I would definitely love to have a sort kind of a filtering system where you can filter good blogs from average ones.

Actually there is, the Blog Power. By specifying your blog and some of your social media accounts, you are getting a certain rating for your blog. The higher, the better obviously. But I find it glitchy since Google PR and other stuffs don’t really determine the audience behind the blog. Another is the part where you link your social media account to the forum. Actually it’s not linking, it’s just inputting (w/c is obviously a flaw).

Since I’m not a social junkie, all of my social accounts power just combined for a mere 7 points. So what I basically did was just borrow the user name of the top users in those social networks. Look:

Obviously the built-in Blog Power isn’t really a reliable metric and even if they fix it, it is still not (metrics aren’t that precise in determining)

It’s also the anti-thesis for direct communication types of guest posting for bloggers. Since most bloggers do have a contact form, then why go through a third party in a forum? Besides, bloggers check their email more often than forums right? Anyways I don’t really see it changing the current procedures in guest posting. People will still contact other bloggers directly and stuffs like that.

Final Words

MyBlogGuest is a decent site and the fact that it’s not a make money program is one thing that I liked so much about it. Ann Smarty is a pretty reputable person in this industry and I know her intention is honest. As the forum grows bigger and bigger and more tweaks are implemented, I think the site can become a key player in the rapidly-growing guest blogging community. Of course it still depends on a lot of factors, mostly the users (both quantity and quality). If she can get large bloggers to thumbs it up then it’s going to get huge in no time.

Paste, Share, Earn – PasteWeb.com Review

by Melvin · Feb 2, 2010

This is a paid post sponsored by PasteWeb.com

I will be honest with you guys, when I was contacted to do this review I was a bit hesitant. But ultimately I decided I can accept this review and share to you what this program is really all about.

Paste Web is a website that allows you to earn by just pasting stuffs and letting people know of what you pasted. To be more detailed, you start things off by pasting literally anything. Then after that you will be given a link where you can share what you’ve pasted to your friends. How are you gonna earn then?

You are going to earn $0.5 per 1000 visitors that see your paste. If you’re going to ask me that’s a small amount since most CPM companies pay people a dollar and above per thousand impressions. Their minimum payout is $20 and its paid out every week as long as you meet the minimum.

Navigating and testing through their site, I found out that the system is easily gameable. The number of impressions goes up even if you just refresh your own paste over and over again. I don’t think the system detects hits from same IP address and stuffs. Obviously that is one thing that they need to fix or prepare to be gamed.

They also have a unique referral system where you get 10% of the earnings of the person you referred. And the best thing according to them is that its forever so as long as your referrals are earning, you are getting paid as well. So if you don’t like the site, all you could do is refer as much active users as you can and then have them making you the money. Again don’t expect that much money since it’s not really going to make the bank

Design

Site wise I cannot really review them that much as they are sporting that very simple, oldish look. It reminds me of old sites who use tables primarily for their design and stuffs. If being simple means more profitable for them, then they’re heading the right way design-wise. Here’s a quick look of the site:

I feel the site is lacking a lot. They should’ve had a FAQ page so that it can answer the basic questions about the site. They should also have that about us page so for people to understand they’re for real and etc. There were also some instances wherein the client area is not working properly. Overall I think they need some sort kind of a redesign both for aesthetics and usability

Conclusion

I would speak frankly about it. If you’re into building real online business I don’t see the reason for you using this service. After all it’s no different from get-paid to click, and survey sites which I always deem as a waste of time. You could very much benefit more by exerting your effort in building real sites with real income potential.

Second, I really cannot speak so much if the site really pays or is just another scam site. After all, its new and doing some research I really haven’t found anyone yet using this site. I also question the business model as a whole. How can they pay that money? What are they getting in return to be able to have that fund to pay out a lot of people?

As a whole, it looks a pretty decent site. Knowing majority of my readers, I know this may not really suit you. Comparing to building a more reliable business model, the only advantage that PasteWeb.com offers is that it can give you that small startup income that you can definitely use to jumpstart your business. And yes, you always hear me emphasize the importance of startup income.

What do you think guys? Has anyone here ever tried that site yet? If not, then please check them out at PasteWeb.com

Crazy Dog T-Shirt Review – Cool Shirts to Promote Your Site

by Melvin · Jan 26, 2010

This is a paid review sponsored by Crazy Dog Shirts

If you’re blogging for quite some time, you would easily notice that one of the most underrated ways of promoting a blog is by sending out tshirts to other bloggers in the same space. T-shirt marketing falls under the category of guerilla marketing and as we all know this type of marketing is the most inexpensive type yet it almost brings the same result.

Back to shirts, today I would like to introduce to you Crazy Dog Shirts, a clothing company that aims to provide low-cost but high quality shirts. The shirt starts at $7 all the way up to $20+. As I was browsing the site, I have noticed that there is no scarcity in Categories w/c for me is a good idea. If you’re old school there’s the 80’s shirts for you, if you are part of this generation, you may like the modern shirts. But if you’re like me, you would definitely love the Offensive Shirts designs.

If nothing there suits your taste and you want a custom one, they’re offering custom designs too. I checked the price and it’s up for just a little under $15 which is cheap if you ask me. We, as a bloggers totally know the importance of having a unique brand to spread. This year I’m planning to use t-shirt marketing as a way of promoting my blog. And too stand out, we have to be unique in choosing the design that will represent our brand.

Crazy Dog Shirts also ships it to anywhere in the world I believe (obviously I can’t speak much because I don’t live in Africa) and they are charging a fairly cheap shipping fee w/c is above 3 bucks. Overall I like the site, I think they are unique in terms of getting their site out in the blogosphere (you probably noticed some reviews already). And to add the price is cheap compared to other t-shirt companies out there.

Have you had any experience with Crazy Dog Shirts before? Share it with me! If you haven’t checked them out yet, please do so now by clicking here

A Social Bookmarking Site That Can Earn You Money

by Melvin · Oct 22, 2009

This is a paid review sponsored by James of Shetoldme.com

Social bookmarking sites are literally everywhere. You find a lot of good ones, and even a bigger number of “not-so” pleasing ones. Of course, popular social sites are the better ones because bloggers know themselves they can get more traffic with it. It can give their blog a brand awareness in front of a huge number of audience.

But what if you could also earn while trying to drive the most traffic you can to your blog? What if you could place more than 1 ad that would earn you inside a high traffic subpage? Well enough fluffs, what I am talking about here is the Social Bookmarking site She Told Me, a social bookmarking site that could help you earn using Google Adsense. Here’s a small portion of what the site looks like:

When James ordered this review and when I quickly saw the link, I was like ‘oh, this is another crappy site and I may not accept this review”. But then I went to the site and was flabbergasted by the amount of traffic it renders. Another is that it gives the best posts a direct link (dofollow) back to the blog instead of a subpage which would later direct people to the blog. In my opinion, it’s a good thing since most people don’t have really time to scan and scan pages, and later get redirected to a different site.

So to the adsense thing. Basically it all starts by putting your publisher id in your account details. Then, when you add a post to the site, your adsense account would be the one catering the ad in that page. What specific ad? Your adsense ad would be the one placed closest to the title (and according the the owner, the one with highest CTR).

So imagine, you submitted a good post. Your page went to the front page and you get the most traffic. And at the back end, there’s also a good chance for you to get as much click as possible for your ad. SheToldMe.com has an Alexa Rank of below 50,000 so that’s a pretty reasonable amount of traffic to deal with. Just to clear things off, Adsense Sharing is not against Google Terms of Services. For more info read their Program Policies here.

Now is their referral system. The lucrative part according to them is that your ad would be displayed on every pages your referred user submits. So that’s more than doubling the income potential if the one user you referred is a quality user who submits good content. Now imagine having referred 10 of them. 🙂 For more information, there’s a page solely dedicated to the Revenue sharing part of the site

Critiques and Suggestions

Well let’s go to the “bad” side. The first thing that didn’t go well with me was the domain name. Sure, digg, sphinn, del.ic.ous, are not really premium ones but i think the owner could’ve had picked a better one. Again its entirely my opinion that the domain doesn’t really suit the sites’ function that much.

Another probably is the design. Most bookmarking sites are Web 2.0ish in looks and shetoldme prefers not to be one of them. It’s understandable since the site is an adsense sharing site (w/c means it would serve a TON of adsense ads) and needs a big space to cater those ads. The logo is related to the domain but again I am quite puzzled with the domain and so as the logo. Aside from Adsense, the site also serves Project Wonderful ads although its very minimal. I really wish a more stylish design for the social site as it’s been time proven that attractive design is a MAJOR bait to attract users.

FINAL VERDICT

So if you guys would ask me if I would use that program, the answer is definitely yes! It’s free, takes 30 seconds to register and get approved, and just like any other bookmarking sites, it can yield traffic and quality links to your blog. The Adsense thing is not something I’m really interested with (I’m long banned from Adsense), but let alone the bookmarking capabilities judge for it.

And what is its difference from the bigger bookmarking sites? None! Well for me, I would always prefer to submit to smaller social sites because it doesn’t really take that much work to go up in the front page rather than with bigger social sites.. There is a considerable difference between the traffic but I would rather want to get some than totally none at all (due to the fact that it’s harder to get in the front page of popular social sites like digg…).

All in all Shetoldme.com is a pretty decent social bookmarking site coupled with the lucrative option of earning money from Adsense Ads. Joining is free and you could start earning soon. Still, DON’T expect too much from it, money wise. Over the years, I’ve seen a ton of Adsense revenue sharing sites, mostly forums and all I can say is that 80% of the time, people’s expectations weren’t met. Again it’s a pretty good site and definitely something that “might” worth a look. Check out She Told Me

Income Diary Review – How Pros Make Their Money

by Melvin · Mar 19, 2009

This is a paid review sponsored by Michael Dunlop

Income Diary is a blog owned by a fellow young entrepreneur Michael Dunlop. Michael is famous more specifically because of his interviews So what is Income Diary? As what the name suggests, it’s actually a blog about making income on the internet. The blog boasts interviews from prominent persons in the industry such as Aaron Wall, John Chow and Chris Garret. Interviews are something that Michael has done a lot in the past and even in Retire @ 21 he has done a lot of it.

Income Diary uses a premium Wootheme and obviously it is customized. I liked the way images are used especially with interviews, the big pictures fit very well in the content of his blog. The sidebar of his blog, unlike most blogs in this niche, isn’t cluttered with paid advertising or whatsoever. Instead, it contains pictures on how one can set up a blog step by step. Another noticeable thing in his blog is the Top Earning Blogs Part. I’m not sure if anyone has done it before but I think it’s another great part of the blog and I can actually see it becoming famous in the future just like other lists.

Although most content in the blog are interviews, Michael also runs a newsletter. He gives away a 7 day course for free about making money by blogging for subscribing to him.

To sum it all up IncomeDiary is a blog worth-following. With myriads of blogs related to blogging and internet marketing springing each day, creating another one doesn’t seem to be a good move. But with the way I see how IncomeDiary.com is starting to grow, I know Michael knows what he is doing. As I’ve said it’s a great site and by saying great, I mean it adds value. Maybe a little more content and walkthrough articles outside the interviews wouldn’t harm.

What do you think?

Publisher Spot – Professional Reviews Of Ad Network

by Melvin · Sep 16, 2008

This is a paid review sponsored by Tyler Cruz

These days there are tons of things that exist. I mean even in an offline world you’ll probably come across with a lot of stuffs that boast all the same portfolio but you’ll never really know unless you do a research. Same as online! When I was starting out I was like joining and joining every of all these affiliate and ad networks in hopes that the more I have joined, the more I would earn. And definitely it’s a flop most of the times. I guess this is where Publisher Spot comes in.

Publisher Spot is basically a site that provides “informative” reviews of all of these networks and companies that an online entrepreneur should look to. I know Publisher Spot when it was in its early days. Honestly I thought it was just like one of those “run of the mill” sites that provides reviews, everything positive so that people would get in there, sign w/that affiliate link and boom profit! But then it was not

The site has a clean layout, and a sleek design. The reviews are done superbly! I mean when I look at the reviews there’s even a thing at the sidebar wherein there are details about the program. The creatives, Payment Methods, Minimum Payout, Payment frequency which I think is a very great thing. I find the review great and not biased. How hard it is not to get biased on something? 😉

The review and commenting also works for those who have an account. I think it’s great that he had only supplied it for those who are registered with the site. This prevents proxies who could just easily game the rating system. Actually these new features is something that for me had made the site way way better. The site also has a forum, which I doubt that will gain any attraction and a blog. The easy navigation of the site is great and I just like it. It makes it easier for those who are newbies and maybe we can remove the word “confusing” when we’re talking about the layout.

All in all I do feel its a great project. To be honest I had something like this long planned way back last year and that it never took off because of lack of commitment from me. I commend Tyler’s effor to produce this site that many newbies starting could surely benefit from. The only thing I didn’t like much is this:

Although they are selling advertising on Publisher Spot, they are not flaunting it. The only link to itheir advertise page is at the bottom so I think its another nice idea rather than to put it uptop, announce it and have there reputation tarnished. Well I know a lot of blogs have already said their piece about it. I think its a great overall project as well as a reference for a lot of aspiring internet marketers. A great job by Mr. Cruz