Ramblings

BloggingTips.com Is For Sale, BIN is $60k+

by Melvin · Dec 23, 2009

So I was bloghopping (does this term really exist?) today and have noticed that one of the bigger blog known as BloggingTips.com is for sale. If you don’t know ( I doubt it), Blogging Tips has been in the blogosphere for quite some time. I watched how it grew, how it used to have a superman logo and how it has a ton of writers now. Again like I always say, it’s sad when you hear people selling their blogs.

Anyways, the auction can be found here and Kevin, the owner is looking for a minimum of $60,000. The blog is an established blog and really one of my favorite reads when talking about blogging. It’s also ad-free I believe and has a good interactive forum (most blogs don’t have). And of course you can add the premium domain where the blog lies in.

Know what? What I don’t like when seeing blogs get sold is the fact that the new owner usually sucks. We’ve seen a lot of good blogs that are turned to so-so blogs when ownership changes and if Blogging Tips gets sold, I do hope its not the case. Either way, good luck to Mr. Muldoon.

Shoemoney System, Manila Blog Workshop & Some Announcements

by Melvin · Dec 17, 2009

So it’s been quite a long time since I’ve done a recap post about the blogosphere and some news. And I thought today is the best day to post for something like this.

And anyways, we’re all feeling the spirit of holidays, aren’t we? 😉

Blog Recap

The blog has been quite doing well both in terms of revenue and growing the community. The traffic for October up to December has grown up to like 125%. And thanks to the guest posting galore and some advertising campaigns. In few days I am going to publish a really great post about how guest posting has really increased not just my traffic but my overall branding overall, so stay tuned!

Shoemoney System and Manila Blogging Workshop

Jeremy Schoemaker, the ever famous Shoemoney has released the Shoemoney System. Seriously it looks like its a paid system (soon) but as for now you really got to check it out as Jeremy is handing out free videos with seriously superb qualities. Whether you’re new into this game or a seasoned one you might want to follow the system as there’s really so much to learn from it.

Meanwhile if you’re here locally (w/c means you’re a Filipino), then you must take a look at the Manila Blogging Workshop. It’s organized by KidBlogger Carl Ocab, who happens to be a good friend of mine too. Carl has been in this business of blogging for what, 4 years? So his experience definitely is something that you could gain a lot. Be sure to check out the video because Carl explained what the workshop is all about (seriously its not the seminar and workshop you’re used to).

Getting Sold and What Not

This past few week has also been surprising with the acquisition of some pretty big companies/dot com businesses online. If you’re a reader of TechCrunch then you probably have heard already that the popular Imeem music has been already sold to Myspace Music for $1 million in cash. There’s a ton of criticism with this acquisition since MySpace seemed to have shut down the API and yea Im a regular Imeem user so it sucks.

Old social network known as Friendster w/c is a very popular network here in Asia has been sold to a Malaysian Payment Company MOL Global. It’s really the last gasp of Friendster, a network which used to be real famous until MySpace and Facebook joined the scene. Friendster was acquired for just a mere value of $26 million (their valuation is like $100 million).

And yea, Im not selling mine and I hope you don’t sell yours as well even though if its just a small asset. I have a huge portfolio of websites and blogs that are just never utilized (because Im soooper busy) well but I swear to God I will KEEP them. Anything I forgot here?

Let Me See Your Workspace

by Melvin · Dec 8, 2009

Much to my surprise there were just actually few people who have done this thing before (doing a google search would tell you). So in this very short post I am going to just to announce that I am looking for YOUR blogging workspace to feature here in my blog.

Note: You don’t need to have a majestic workspace to get qualified. Whether your workspace is in the farm, or in the yacht or wherever. The goal of this is to simply showcase the workspace of small business entrepreneurs/bloggers like us. In exchange is, of course a lovely link from this PR0 blog and some traction. 😀

How the heck are you gonna let me know about your workspace? There are various ways:

By using my contact form (recommended)
By giving a link of it in the comment form (not recommended, you’d spoil the excitement by letting your workspace shown “prematurely”)
By tweeting it to @melvinblog
Writing in Mail.

So fire away your workspaces!

Really Want To Make Money? – Find Your Strengths!

by Melvin · Nov 30, 2009

I remember when I was just getting started with my making money ventures I was like “I want to try this, want to try that and whatever”. My mentality was like I want to try everything so that when something fails, there’s still a good chance some of the methods I tried would work. Imagine if I would try 20 different money-making tactics, maybe at least 1 or 2 would succeed. Did I do the right thing? NO!

The Problem Noobs Encounter

When some new guy is entering the industry, you could easily expect that guy to be full of energy and enthusiasm. Or maybe inspiration for some people. Like my case, they jump into everything head first and has that aggressive mentality and “hail Mary please work” mindset. But it isn’t wrong right? The answer is YES and NO.

I’ve written a lot here in the blog about how people should TAKE ACTION and I know other million dozen bloggers say the same. It’s true, you won’t succeed reading for 10 years before acting. But the same can be also said to being too aggressive. I had this cousin who really wanted to jump into affiliate marketing and because she’s really wealthy, she dived into it without having any basic startup knowledge. The result was she lost a ton of money.

You know me, I really love to test, love to take advantage of “unheard” stuffs and just always think outside the box. But do bare in mind that I can already afford to fail given my experience with internet marketing. If you’re a noob, has no money and has that unnerving mindset then LISTEN. I know it’s cool to look real brave, its good for the ego for people to see you as a courageous newbie business person. But don’t be an idiot. Work your way up first before acting like you’ve done it already.

Finding Your Strengths

Just because you heard arbitrage is cool, doesn’t mean you have to go into it. I hear a lot of people saying “I heard this thing makes big money, I heard I could become a millionaire with this and that”. That’s exactly the no.1 recipe for failure.

If you really want to start making money, then start analyzing your strengths. Start planning the directions you’re going to take. Narrow down your huge options and think. I understand everyone wants to be that “entrepreneur”, a CEO-like business person who is at the top, foreseeing whats happening, getting the biggest money but you have to understand it’s not gonna happen. Successful freelancers remain as freelancers, graphic artists could never become programmers and bloggers as CEO is far-fetched.

What do you think? Do you think you’re playing the game using your strengths or playing it with others strength? Let me know by using the contact form below..

MelvinBlog 2.0 – The Scenes Behind It

by Melvin · Nov 24, 2009

By now you probably have realized that this blog has been sporting a new design and a completely different layout. And as always any change deserves an explanation. 😉 So in this post I would try to do an in-depth explanation about this new design and how it came out to look like this.

MelvinBlog’s New Design

I lied when I stated that the new design would probably be implemented next year. Anyways, obviously the new design uses a magazine template which enables easier navigation and making good use of spaces. At first I totally really oppose the use of magazine themes for this blog for some reasons but after seeking for professional advices, I just got myself convinced!

The theme I am specifically using is Colormatic Theme, a theme created by ThemeWars which is owned by the super popular Unique Blog Designs. As of course, there are many magazine-styled themes by other companies but I guess UBD has sold the concept of this theme well to me and so I did purchase the developer’s license.

Anyways, the one prop I always get from the former theme is that it looks really peaceful and tranquil. I guess people like the light colors of it and I, myself think that the blending of color on that theme was good. So basically what I did was to try to carry out as much color schemes/combination as possible and import it in the new theme.

Better Navigation

As you can see the homepage of the blog showcases not just the latest post but also the best posts from the blog. It has the featured content at the top most part and the recent blog posts at the left. I also have four sub footers in there in which I have difficulties filling up with.

The unique part of this theme is the built-in blog navigator widget, the social network in the sidebar and the recent tweets. Do take note that those are not plugins but built-in widgets that comes within the theme.

This is the first time I have had a list in the IM niche and although I am with Aweber for long, I never really intended to have one until I realized the need of it last month. And that was one reason the change of theme has become imminent.

So this current layout has basically met my plans with the newsletter placement and as you may notice it’s very very visible. Feel free to sign up in it (it’s free) and I am promising to over-deliver to you, giving out the best stuffs that I’ve never yet put up here. You might not want to miss that.

Better Ad Placements

The new theme benefits advertisers as well. All the ads are shown on EVERY page/post and it just means maximum exposure for them. It’s also taking lesser space now as opposed to before yet is more organized.

I don’t have any plans on increasing the number of ads/ad spots in this blog (yet) as this blog is not created solely for getting monetized. But I am planning to increase the price of the ad spots since the current price is the price for about 5-6 months and obviously the blog has grown a ton after that period.

The Sidebar, Testimonials and Facebook Fan My Blog

Well this theme is preloaded with 4-5 different layouts and this one I’m using has two sidebars in homepage and one in every page/post. Using the sidebars is so easy because it’s widgetized unlike my former team. And as you may notice different widgets show in different pages of the blog (I would talk that in my future posts).

There’s also that testimonial part in the latter part of the sidebar. These are testimonials from some of the loyal readers of this blog and if you feel you can add one, then please hit me up in the contact form.

The facebook fan my blog widget is one that’s been recently used by a lot of bloggers and have left me wondering “why not?” So currently all the fans are my friends and classmates and so if you’re a frequent reader and a subscriber here then why not give the author some kudos by hitting up the “become a fan” button? 🙂

Overall Feel and Your Suggestions

It actually took me close to one week to test different color schemes and layout before deciding to fully implement this one. My designers and I still had about 4-5 custom implementations to make this theme more enticing. We’re still waiting for something to finally put together all those piece. In the end I really feel it’s all worth it and I feel more excited than ever! It makes me want to go to every page of the blog and feel the new look of it.

I also think it’s time to say goodbye to the old theme. I really like it and I’ve told you that lots of times here. That greenish organic theme from PremiumThemes.Net made me good money, helped the blog grow and had its own ups and downs. I’m a guy who appreciates everything and here’s the final look the MelvinBlog V1 powered by Organic theme. Click for a larger look…

So now it’s your turn. I’ve asked some of my friends about the new design and now it’s time for you, my audience to speak out your mind and throw your suggestions and critique for this blog. I could very well appreciate each and every suggestion that I can get from you and let’s hope it’s a win-win situation for everyone here.

I Wish There’s More Than 24 Hours A Day

by Melvin · Oct 31, 2009

Being into blogging and internet marketing for more than 2 years now there is really only one thing I wished for, and that is more time. I mean this is not just blogging as it also applies in life more generally but let me just ramble for these things quite a bit. 😀

So in one day there is 24 hours. Obviously most don’t even use half of and neither do I but I think it would make sense if it’s longer than just that. Ok here’s how my life works (since June). Monday through Fridays I have to wake up 5 am to go to my internship. So basically its an 8-5 duty where all I do is create a program for the system we are developing using VB.NET. Then by 6:30 I am home, would take my early dinner and then open my laptop and do my stuffs. Doing those things 5 times a week. It would still be the same if Im going to school given the fact there are things that suck like homeworks and projects (and exams of course).

Then during Saturdays and Sundays I wake up 7-8, then do majority of my work maintaining several websites and blogs as well as tracking my affiliate campaigns. Then I have to split my time with other members because we have a small grocery store business, in w/c its really thriving so good that sometimes we need to be all there just to ensure the process is smooth for the customers. Then afternoon, back to my computer doing a mix of blogging and surfing the internet/watching videos (just what a usual teenager does) and stuffs. And yes being the eldest of the family, doing errands, performing my responsibilities are the things I haven’t even mentioned.

It’s not really that I am complaining I am doing so many things. Not that I dislike being busy either. But I think it would make more sense if there’s more than 24 hours in one day. I know it sounds crazy and retarded but I feel some of you guys can connect with me. Nope, Im not lacking rest nor am I letting my health suffer either. It’s just that I WANT TO DO MORE. I always feel that it’s not even a question if I could handle all those stuffs. It’s more on if time can really hold on for me. Anyways I thought its interesting to let you guys know what are the MORE things I am referring to:

Play Basketball – remember I used to be an “athlete” and I was super active with basketball before college came in.
Do more offline businesses – I have several small ones, but I am really yearning to start on few brilliant ideas that I have.
Travel – I always do this but not to the place I really feel delighted to.
Teach my siblings with internet marketing and blogging
Cook, cook, cook – I have a ton load of cooking recipe eBooks here in my hard drive and Im just wondering on when I could implement it
Speak/Attend in conferences
Socialize with friends more.
Do extensive training for bulking up and building muscle – LOLs..
Organize events locally for bloggers and marketers alike
Have my own radio show – like what the guys at webmasterradio.fm do.
Get more involve with community activities here in my place.
Watch every possible movie in cinemas.
Manage some of my “high-potential” business assets that never really get off the ground.
Hold a private seminar locally helping people get started with blogging and making money online.
Leverage my online presence more.
Do large joint ventures
Be able to have time to make a major makeover of my room/office.
Have a voice lesson
Play guitar and keyboards again – Two to three years ago I believe i was really a good keyboard, guitar player. I had lessons before that jumpstarted my abilites and since I started becoming busy, I just had to cut doing this one. 🙁
Learn martial arts and self defense
Spend more time with people that MATTER to me. 😀
and the list goes on…

So I thought that’s it. I like to be the most well-rounded person I can ever become, doing the most possible stuffs that I enjoy. And yep it could only become possible if there’s more time. Productivity is not something that I think I can boast to you but Im sure I’m not a lazy person. Heheh, what about you? It would be interesting to hear your side w/regards to this matter and also gather any advice you may have for me. 🙂