MelvinBlog

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

Preachings

Every Kid Who Has A Blog Is Busy Right Now!

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Student Blogger
Student Blogger

Yesterday I was looking on blog premiere forum (kid and teenager bloggers) and have observed that it seems most kid bloggers today have had some adjustments with his posting frequency and others have just simply stopped because of studies. Well this is true especially the latter part of the year wherein the school resumes back and more probably take a huge chunk of time of bloggers and marketers who are studying still. It has also been noticeable that the comments and activity of young bloggers through forums and social sites have decreased. Really hard to manage time right?

Well I think it’s one crucial thing here and most kid and teenagers will learn from it. How they should be able to manage their time and how we should maintain our online stuffs without having our studies suffer. For me the trimester of our school has ended. There will be a one week break before I head back again to the second trimester. This trime by far is the busiest one and I really learned a lot on it. It’s ironic because the blog has never lost its ranking. I mean from August to July, I have stopped promoting it and well mainly because I can’t, everything related to school has been like eating my whole time.

How about you? I know most readers here do also study and split their time doing different stuffs, do you think you are managing your time well?

Can Blogs Help You Make Money?

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Well this is a great question by one of my childhood friend. He was very curious about how blogs can help people make money. In all honesty, blogs CAN’T make you money, and although they can help, it’s just not as easy as people think. Why? Well blogs first and foremost is a place bloggers where stuck their own notes and what they are putting their is all based on their OWN experience and opinion. You see guys put “Making money with PPC” or maybe with Website Flipping or so but the truth is it’s based on their own experience (most of the time). They have done it well so they can recommend it and in this way they can help you learn and gain some knowledge about it. But their’s no way they’re helping you make money, or maybe they do but it’s still up to you.

I don’t really have problems with this but it’s just that what worked for others doesn’t mean will work with you (or doesn’t mean it won’t work for you). Yeah, they are plenty of blogs there that provide useful and superb resources.  You can always read a good article about Pay Per Click and still suck at doing it. You can print a ebook about making money with articles but still fail. Bottom line is people do things differently and have different expertise. Or Maybe making money online is just not for you

The Importance of StartUp Income

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startup incomeI always like to go back to the old days wherein I used to struggle and almost “cry” trying hard ti make money online. Well, I still struggle today but never cry anymore. 😉 So I can say one thing that has really made me up on internet marketing is the startup income. During those hard times, I have the money to cover up all failing projects and dumb purchases. It’s also evident to see that when you’re carving up something online or even offline, you need to have some startup cash to cover your expenses. Jason always points it out in some of his post saying you have to work for some small income first to get you online for bigger things. I agree on that. Before I was doing some freelancing to cover up some PPC cost and advertising expenses. Of course its risky because you will 85% sure fail. But well I was more of yearning about learning that time.

Well, if you’re thinking how you can build some initial income here’s what I can suggest to you:

  • Forum Posting – This one is easy but you have to have hardwork. Forumsfirst pays $0.20 for each 40 word comment. They pay via paypal and the minimum is $10. If you type very fast (like me) and have a great WPM accuracy then a $10 can be easily made by an hour. Cool!
  • GPT – A while a back ago I asked Jim of the Netfool why he is promoting GPT sites. He responded saying because everyone can make money from it so easy. All you have to do is complete free offers. Check out The Net Fools GPT sites.
  • Freelancing – Before I used to embark a lot of time in this one. Before I used to have a good grammar before blogging made my grammar look atrocious! If you’re up on writing articles, coding and so then this one is for you.
  • Digital Point – Last month I made a post about how you can make a living on DP forum. Again DP has an enormous opportunity on making money. You can join contests, do some data entry jobs and boast yyour portfolio there. After all there is no middle man so you get a fair share of everything.

Of course there are tons of it but at least these are what I can say have worked for me well. At the end it is all about determination and hardwork. I guess it always pays off at the end.

Ad Spots/Types I Don’t Think Look Good For Readers

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Well as you can see I am almost pretty sold out on private ads. Maybe that’s because of the super duper affordable but quality advertising I am giving them. 😉 There are some who have booked it for long term. If you are interested in advertising (I know you’re not!), look at the advertising page.

So, selling ad spots depends on the owner. You can oversell every space on your blog to make money. Just look the evil Chow and the number of ads on his site. But of course sometimes this may hurt your readership (in some cases they dont). Well, these are the spots and/or type of ads that I hate:

  • Stripe Ads – I will never consider this one. On older browsers, sites that have stripes do not look well. But well even though if everyone is using Firefox, I wouldn’t still consider it. For me it’s annoying and would hurt your readers (literally)
  • Leaderboard – Although I have used it in my basketball blog, it isn’t really much of a great choice I think. After all it’s very HUGE and the focus of your reader will instead shift to the leader one.
  • 300X250 – Again Chow and some guys like Tyler Cruz and Carl Ocab are selling this spot. Why I don’t think its good? Well because oftentimes people will wonder what’s the relation of that pic/ad to the certain post! Your readers will wonder what is it for and it’s not so good for branding. Will never try it!
  • Peel away Ads – For some other people they have had some success with it but for me it’s like giving almost 1/4 of your blog to advertising. Although it’s not as intrusive as others, I have received feedbacks that it slows down your blog/site. Anything that makes a site slow is BAD!

That’s it for now. Maybe someday I can appreciate those spots and start thinking of selling them (no way!) But well it depends on people and needs. Maybe if I need it badly to buy me a house and lot then I would consider it. 🙂

What Affiliate Network To Join

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affiliate networkThis is the second part of the series called Niche/Affiliate Marketing. I nearly forgot that I am doing a series here so pardon me if this one came after a month. The first part is niche research which you can find here

So you have now find a niche that you will be targeting what’s next? Obviously the next one is picking an affiliate program to use. This one should be very easy as most of the known affiliate network are legitimate. You can always sign up as many affiliate networks as possible. This is also because some networks are picky in terms of affiliates and sometimes you will get rejected. Another thing is to play around the networks you have chosen. Affiliate programs have different looks, pay differently, track not the same as the other and so. It’s important to know everything about the network. Remember to be focused on the niche of your choice. If you have done your research properly, you will probably have an easy time promoting high converting products. Here are the list of networks I have used and made money:

  • Commission Junction – Probably one of the oldest networks here. They are proven to be a great affiliate network and they also have a very large marketplace. They are a little picky in terms of products to promote and it depends on what methods you use.
  • Pepperjam Network – they have just started this year and they are overachieving. I have made a post last month on why they worth a look from everyone. They uses Web 2.0 and advanced tracking. There are also some big advertisers on them (such as playboy, disney and so). And we had a partnership that has extended until August in which publishers who sign UNDER me will get a $10 bonus signup.
  • Clickbooth – another network that pays very high. Clickbooth is one of the networks that has large list of email and zip submits. Most of it pay $1.5 for zips only. I know some people making millions w/zip submits. 😉 And another thing is that they have seemed to recover to the criticisms and frauds that most people say about them.
  • AzoogleAds – this is probably the best one if you are going to ask top affiliate marketers. They also have a large marketplace and they are combination of Clickbank and CLickbooth and PepperJam. Problem is they don’t likely accept affiliates outside US and Canada. We’re disqualified dude!
  • Market Leverage – has almost dominated the blogosphere these past months when they started sponsoring contest like a mad man! The control panel of theirs is a bit confusing but is very informative. I haven’t had much success w/Market leverage maybe due to the fact I am pressured to win most contest. 🙂

That are the top networks for me. Well actually that is what I have used and had made me some great money. But of course there are plenty others who so much worth a look. Clickbank, Moreniche, Copeac and etc. What I have included are the networks that I feel newbies can use and they can learn a lot from it while making some decent money… I hope I made everything clear. 🙂

Top Commentators, Prizes and Incentives

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So again I am stucked on a very busy weekend with all people making me look like a slave. Like what I have done last month I have given the top commentators some gifts back for commenting a lot. Last time it’s an ebook about incentive marketing. This time it will be entrecard credits and one will get a free advertising on this blog via a link. 😉 If you do not, I just won a contest on Grademoney’s blog and I won 5000 entrecards from Bloggernoob who will also do a review on my blog.

Also I was able to finally receive the Atomic Blogging package worth $37 which I have won Carl Ocab’s Contest. The ebook is a great book and there are some items there that is well worthed. Another thing to say is that I will doing some incentive marketing here on my blog and on some forums. Incentive marketing is something that I have NEVER tried before so i think i’m gonna try to put up some efforts to it. This one is a great and busy week with some great post from all over the world. Check them out:

Now who said its bad to give a lot of outgoing links? 😉

Don’t Bother With PM’s From Your Blog

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Since I have started this thingy I am always receiving tons of message from the contact form that are pissing me a lot. I’m not an impatient person but of course I don’t like craps. As this blog is getting read by more and more kids people there are also other things that are not so good to my eyes. Like the number of spams I am starting to receive and of course the messages from the contact form.

The purpose of the contact form is to contact. Sometimes my friends do not know how they can reach me so I put this one up. That’s also there for business purposes. But when is something not business related? Let me tell you a story. Sometime last month someone contacted me saying that their company is holding some promotional measures and would do me a free banner and logo in exchange for a linkback. During that time I think my header is fine but still I was like “Wow someone seems to be interested in my blog” But then the thoughts of beautiful design ala UniqueBlogDesigns was thwarted when the sample was given to me. It’s SO ugly that the drawing of a chicken could even look better than it. I swear! After that, I no longer respond. But that certain kept on sending me mails. After a week, they are already three! They all promote the same thing with the same company. Wow!

So things like that started off like comets falling here on earth. Most are asking/offering me about their services(which isn’t bad)! And a lot has been promoting untested networks with their affiliate links and wtf, their is even someone there saying she wants to be my husband! I guess this is really how things go. I can now understand how big and established guys and companies are having hard time dealing w/it. Before i am used to checking my email in this blog everyday, now it’s once a week and sooner it will be once a month!