Ramblings

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?

Blog Updates & Some Ramblings

by Melvin · Jul 31, 2009

Answers to q & a would be on the next post. 🙂

It’s been pretty obvious that the internship has affected the way I manage all my online business, including this blog of course. If you would take a sneak at the Archives page you would see that the post count has dropped from the usual 12-13 posts per month to 5 posts per month (June & July). I have also put all my other online projects in hiatus to give way to the stressing internship. And to be honest, I actually haven’t figured out yet the right ‘time management’ for it.

Anyways back here in the blog, it seems that I have already fixed most of the flaws in the theme template. As you may notice, the pagination/paging of the blog located at the footer is now doing well. I would like to make mention of Mr.Bhavesh of CSSACE who responded to me professionally despite my fuming anger. 😉 He supported me all throughout the process and it was really helpful to me. The only problem right now is that I lost the advertisers ads at the sidebar (2 banners, 3 text links) due to my carelessness. I am trying to look for those advertisers contact but just can’t seem to find it.

Lastly, I would like to extend my gratitude to the Market Leverage family, specifically for Dina Riccobono. If you would remember, last January I won a contest sponsored by Market Leverage. The ML family sent me an Ipod w/c never reached me until now. Dina and I were negotiating about the possible substitute and last solution was the paypal payment (w/c has always been my last option). Like Bhavesh, Dina handled my emails very well (and in a very friendly manner). 🙂 I’m not sure if other Affiliate companies would do the same in that situation. Thanks guys!

How to Kill Yourself in Internship

by Melvin · Jun 20, 2009

Well probably a lot of you guys know that I have not posted for over a week because I am having an internship for the final school year of my college life. And to be honest it’s so toxic that I cannot even go out and tweet my balls in twitter and do facebook stuffs. To make it worst, I forgot that one of my test campaigns have almost ran for a week, getting me no conversion and over $50 in clicks!

Well if you don’t know, I am taking my intern (surprisingly) here in one of the biggest hospital in the country. I (and a friend named Kat) were associated with the IT-tech department in w/c we do techy stuffs (instead of doing programming w/c is what my course was really about). Actually its kinda scary because its been said that there are a ton of a(h1n1) cases in the hospital. Sometimes we were asked to pullout a computer from an infection control department and sometimes from the ER w/c is sick. But that doesn’t stop there, the hardest and most stressing part of the intern is the travel. It takes about 3 hours for me to arrive to that place and all in all 6 hours. As I arrived home, the only statement I can express is ”rest”.

GUEST POSTERS

Nuff said, as you see I can’t even make a post in a week so I am looking for quality and quirky guest posts over the week. The requirements are literally almost non-existing. As long as you think your post can please me then go ahead send it to me. Thus far I get 200+ uniques a day and 600 pageviews. I do also get an average of 16 comments per post. For those who are interested kindly save the wordpress html version of your post in notepad, then send it to my email melvin[at]melvinblog.com or by using the contact form. That’s it for now gotta take my rest.

Looking For Answers? Check this Out!

by Melvin · Jun 13, 2009

Are you looking for answers to your questions that are burdening you? (LOL) or is something bothering you that you cannot sleep @ night? Check this video out about peteranswers.com (pardon for the background music at the start)! Btw, tune the volume up as my voice is pretty low (both in tone and volume).

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?

Personal Updates and Ramblings

by Melvin · May 30, 2009

Well many of you who followed me since I started would remember me emphasizing always that this blog is a personal blog, not a make money online or internet marketing blog. But like what most blog’s who share their experience w/internet marketing and in this niche alike, they usually morph to mmo blogs or blogs that people somehow read to learn some guides. Well I wouldn’t lie by saying this blog hasn’t gone from being a personal blog to an internet marketing/blogging one as my post in the archives would probably tell you how this blog really evolved from a ramblings blog to a blog that all of a sudden teaches something, oh well.

I really miss the aura of having a personal blog so here I’m going to list some personal updates from me and some ramblings:

I just gained 12 lbs since February though it didn’t really look evident.
I bought another walkman phone so to make it kinda a collection.
Got myself another reseller account strictly to host this blog and my friends blogs. 🙂
Next week I’m going to go to the Internship so for the first time I am looking for quality guest posters. For those who are interested you can state your interest in the contact form.
Bought myself an album of Taylor Swift (I know it’s gay and it sucks)
Visited my relatives that I haven’t seen in quite a while.
Started a small offline business related to nuts!

What to look for, for the upcoming days:

My upcoming ebook w/c is titled ‘Monetizing Make Money Online Blogs’. I’m planning on selling it for a bargain!
Contest – am planning to hold another massive contest to give back to my readers.
change of blog’s theme? – what say you?
Newsletter – This one is far-fetched but I’ll try my best. 🙂
Blogging Hiatus – w/c is again due to internship. If there is no interest on guest posting then I would probably just sell put my blog on hiatus.
And many more. 😀

How about you?

How Adsense Changed Everything (Ironic Way)

by Melvin · May 14, 2009

One of the reasons why Google Adsense has become popular is because it has changed the lives of most people who started using it. For instance Jeremy Schoemaker get started because of his $100,000+ cheque from Adsense. Some of my close friends do also get started with Adsense. After getting their $100+ payments, they reinvested it and luckily grew their business. In that way Adsense has not just become a money-maker, but also sort like an “inspiration”.

For me it’s no different except that it goes completely the ironic way. As what you can read from my about page, I started blogging 2 years ago primarily because ‘we were told’ Adsense can make us rich. The truth is it didn’t! Because earning from adsense is so hard when you a have website that has 10 pageviews a day, I became so impatient that I started clicking my ads and telling everyone (indirectly) to do the same instead of focusing driving traffic . Ok, luckily I was able to get my first adsense payment after 4 months for $102. I thought that was the best back then!

So I continued being a douche and still clicked my ads (and told everyone too) on computer shops and stuffs. I got two warnings then from Adsense about it but still continued. In the next 4 months I saw I have $140+ in my account, there’s every reason to be ecstatic for me (oh poor guy~!). Then the dreaded email from google telling me that I am banned from using them and they are going to reverse that $140 and blah blah. I pleaded my case to no avail. Of course why would I win the case if it’s obvious I was clicking it my own?

That had probably changed everything. That time I was really depressed not only with $ 140 but also expenses I have spent on renting comp.shops everyday just to pretend I’m a different people clicking my ads. It was all boggling my mind. Back then I haven’t received any payments aside from Adsense! So what I did was start working on what’s their and not on what isn’t there. I had accounts in Kontera, Moreniche, SponsoredReviews, PayPerPost, stuffs and stuffs. One common thing about it is I still haven’t reached the amount for minimum payout so I worked hard on it!

Long story short, I’m now here w/this blog that somehow people respect. I’m here with craploads of knowledge on affiliate marketing. Here, slowly but surely understanding the whole online business thing. That wouldn’t probably happen if not for Adsense banning me. Sure I’m not like other marketers who grew their business big time up to 6 figures but who cares? I’m far more happy w/where I am and how i’m doing things.

Every time I tell this story to people they were kinda wondering how I got lucky getting an Adsense payment while clicking the ads fraudulently. To be honest I don’t know either. Maybe i just really have done it patiently and carefully or Divine Intervention?LOL! But anyhow I’m far more happy w/how I got optimistic despite being banned and losing all the money I thought would be the money I could all make, how I became focused despite being a douche in an online world, and everything.

Sure its not the “better-hearing” story you could ever hear but it’s still nice story for me. How about you, any inspirational three-paragraph story to share? 😀