Preachings

Losing Interest On Monetizing This Blog

by Melvin · Jul 2, 2009

So today marks the last day for about 4 ad placements in this blog and obviously they wouldn’t want to renew anymore. Many people who buy the book I created about monetizing make money online blogs usually ask me how I manage to make that amount of money with this blog. The truth is I do have *other* make money online blogs that have lesser readership, yet makes more money than this one. As always, I do believe this blog is more of a personal blog rather than a niche site so I monetize it depending on my mood. Btw back to those other blogs, I believe I have purchased them a couple of years back (some are last year), and had a great deal with a superb freelancer w/c happened to be also a great friend of mine. To keep it short, I do basically outsource everything as much as I can.

Back to this blog, when I started this I always dreamed of like kinda making $1000 with it someday. But as time goes on I did realize that blogging is more fun when you use it spontaneously rather than pressuring yourself trying to maximize its potential. Luckily, letting the flow go natural still made this blog earn three figures a month. Honestly I really I don’t care that much (unlike before) if this blog earns or what or not. I’m just more elated to have a couple hundred of readers reading this blog everyday, happy to have people commenting, glad spammers keep on spamming me and for me it’s what makes me keep blogging despite all other profitable projects I have currently (and the fucking intern as well).

Anyways just sharing, I know some of you can connect with me. Who knows? Maybe after quite some time, I would realize what direction this blog is going profit wise. And to consider, who doesn’t love passive income? 😀

Is There Such A Thing As Overrated Blogs?

by Melvin · Jun 27, 2009

When blogging started almost a decade ago, no one really perceived it as something ‘useful’. Since blogs are just diaries that convey confessions and love stories, a lot of people don’t pay too much attention to it. Fast forward, blogs now have become a source for useful informations, a must-read if you’re going to make a decision or going to do something. Because of its evolution, people are now putting a high expectations in it. If you started a blog the right way, then all of a sudden get stucked with stuffs and started posting those ‘oh so personal’ posts, then people would now call you and your blog OVERRATED. Nowadays, people always EXPECT something.

Over the years a lot of what used to be good blogs are getting started to be labeled as overrated blogs. Name it, techcrunch.com, time.com, icanhazcheeseburger and plenty more others… The criteria for them is simple for ruling out that a blog is overrated. If a blog is well-trafficked, has a ton of good press around the internet yet its not really showing up good content for what it gets, then it’s easy to label the blog as overrated. For example shoemoney.com is a famous blog for this niche. It gets a ton of comments per post, sold out ad spots and humongous rss list. But it hardly (varies for different type of people) gives out helpful tips that are related to internet marketing (maybe except now, because he started the x thing membership). Does that make it overrated? You judge!

I have a mixed take on these so-called overrated blogs and the whole concept of this overrated thing. After all they are only blogs. And blogs aren’t required at all to post useful/helpful content right? It’s also not their problem that they got famous for posting personal stuffs or pictures of cat.s After all it seems like blogging goes back to what it really is before content-wise. Just play w/the game of blogging… My piece of advice as always is that never ever claim to be an authority. Unless you can commit to it for life..

How bout you? What are the blogs that you think are overrated? You think yours is overrated? or mine? 😀

Lurking On Forums, Good or Bad?

by Melvin · Jun 2, 2009

Another busy day for me and I just thought that before I go to bed I would share my views on lurking on forums and on whether it is good or not.

The Good

Well first and foremost forums tend to be ‘informative’ since it’s like a sharing place where experienced people and complete newbies alike share their own piece of things. Early last year I really spent a reasonable chunk of time hanging out with people on forums. Not only because I get to learn new things but also I get to know other people and eventually make friends with them. Forums are also a good research tool although not all the info there are up-to date.

The Bad

Most experienced marketers would tell you that spending too much time on forums is wasting your time. It can be true to a point, let me explain. While we can really find good infos on forums, most people never really get to implement them. Because people are more likely in forums to find the ‘perfect solution’, the problem stems up when they don’t find that ‘perfect’ one. They end up staying in forums then for the whole day (or almost). The truth is you really got to implement and test stuffs that you’ve read and learned and this what internet marketing is all about.

Another reason why staying in forums is bad is because it can be a good entertainment. Webmaster forums like dp have general chats and entertainment section wherein you can discuss other variety of stuffs. Make no mistake of it, communicating and enjoying yourself is not bad, what makes it bad is that when it takes a lot of your productivity.

How about you, do you spend a lot of time in forums? do you think your wasting your time in it or you’re gaining something?

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.

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. 😉

Make Sure You Upgrade Your Feed Link

by Melvin · May 4, 2009

It has not been new to everyone that Feedburner has been acquired by Google. Because of it we have to upgrade basically everything and migrate and lose some subscribers in the process.

Anyway this is just a very short reminder to everyone to please update your feedburner url. That is because the current url of the feed is not redirecting to the new feed address which gives you a ‘page cannot be found’. If you’re using Feedburner FeedSmith plugin (which you should be using anyway), just change the previous url (‘feeds.feedburner.com/blogsname) to the new one (feeds2.feedburner.com/blogsname). I do also suggest to update your feedcount chicklet’s url and image url so that your feedcount can be shown. It can be done by simply appending ‘2’ after the word ‘feeds’. Most of us have our feed address set at http://blogname.com/feed, if you try to click it, it would just give you an error page. Not sure though how long it would last.

What I have noticed is that a lot bloggers, even big bloggers haven’t changed it yet. So what to do now? Change it! Believe me folks, you’re letting a lot of potential subscribers go away by having an erratic feed link, even if its just for one day.

5 Things I Wish They Had Taught In School

by Melvin · Apr 7, 2009

(This is a guest post from Buzz Marketer, speaker and entrepreneur Dean Hunt)

When I think of all the pointless crap I was taught in school, it seems such
a waste.

The REAL life skills are not taught in schools, simply because the vast
majority of people (including teachers) don’t know about them.

So here are the 5 things I wish I had been taught in school.

1. The 80/20 rule is a lifesaver.

This is a lesson I learned the hard way…

The rule states that 80% of your value in work and life will come from 20%
of your actions and activities.

This means that a lot of what you think is important…. Isn’t

By using the 80/20 rule you can spend more time and energy on the stuff that
you love… hobbies, sports, dating, making money etc…

2. You have to GIVE Value before you can Receive it.

Most people get this the wrong way around. You see, to get money, love
,kindness etc… you must give it first, and then you will receive it.

The more you give, the more you will get.

3. Make SxxT Happen!

Most people are reactive people, this means that they wait for stuff to
happen before taking action.
If you want to save time, get more done and be respected more, then you
should work on becoming a PRO-active person.

So take control, no matter what, you are the boss.

4. Mistakes are Good

I only learned this rule when I moved to a foreign country and tried to
learn a new language.

One day, after a large meal, instead of saying that my stomach was full, I
said that I was pregnant.

The whole table laughed, and I felt like I was going to die of shame.

But guess what?

I never made that mistake again.

If you fail enough times, you will be successful. So try and look forward to
your failures, it just means you are one step closer to success.

5. 90%+ of What You Fear Doesn’t Exist

Not only will the vast majority of the things you fear and worry about never
happen, but if they did happen, they would be nowhere near as bad as you
imagine.

Look back to when you were a child, what did you fear? Now look at how many
of those things actually happened or mattered.

Summary

Schools are designed to teach us how to pass exams, in the big wide world,
they serve only as rough, out of date guidelines.

You now have 5 tips that I learned the hard way… and I have had all 5
verified from hugely successful entrepreneurs.

Life is a game, there is no ebook we can read for guaranteed success, there
is no second chance, so let’s live it to the full.

All the best.

Dean Hunt

Note: Dean has a free 7-day program on kick-starting ANY
website with ethical mind control, killer bunnies, and by legal traffic
theft.
Get all these tips and more direct to your inbox by visiting: Max Traffic 7-Day
Program
Also, Dean writes a popular buzz marketing
blog and at the exclusive, members-only BuzzProfits.com