blogs

The Polluted Make Money Online Niche

by Melvin · Jul 20, 2008

blog pollution Well I was looking over at 45n5 top 100 make money online blogs and have seen my blog already there in the top 300. I also have seen some of my friends blog already there. I always had a thought that everyone nowadays or even as early as last year is trying to get into the make money online niche. Almost every minute there are new “make money online” blogs springing over and over. I can so much say that that this niche is like a river full of feces garbage and craps.

People are jumping into this niche because they are thinking that creating a make money online blog (or something similar) will make them money. That alone can summarize they are so wrong on doing and believing on it. Make money online blogs are blogs that help people make money maybe online or from other sources. Most bloggers nowadays think that because they have this kind of blog they can make money from it easily. Naah! That’s why I always have the feeling that people want to create a blog like those because they want their readers to help them make money while in truth, they should be helping the readers! MMO blogs are so many nowadays, like the rapist on every corner of the street. And I have listed here why it is so much polluted.

Make MMO and you’ll get tons of comments. Now this is what I think in general. It’s a proof because most people who do this are always looking for blogs to comment and they do it on a lot of blogs. i’m not saying it’s wrong, but you see it’s just a proof that this niche has a lot of spammers bloggers. Just take a great look at my basketball blog, most of the comments there are just under 10 and that’s because there aren’t a lot of people interested on reading basketball blogs.
The top 100 list. Remember 45n5 top list? Well no offense but I can say that most blogs there in the list are a crap (I’m not saying mine is better). Most blogs there are just full of anchor links that spam Google and some are just made for affiliate links and so. The list only shows how many people are egging to jump into it.
Do not promote it. and you will still get pageviews. it’s just like in the first one. People are always looking for something that can boost their blog’s exposure and it’s exactly it.
Ever increasing scammers. Well as these make money online blogs occur, so as the advertising networks who are promising to overdeliver and overpay only to suck at the end. Everyday I always get about 2-5 emails through the contact form on my blog suggesting me to use their services and I will earn a lot. Are they scam? Perhaps! But the thing is most newbie will just jump to it not knowing they are still untested and will later whine for not being payed.

As I have said before the numbers would easily quadruple for the succeeding years. But is it a problem? Heck No! Some really make good chunk of money from it! It’s just a proof that while the mmo niche is gettin polluted and competitive, it’s also getting to be milked easier as you no longer need to promote it very hard as bloggers will find you. But then is it enough to make a good chunk of money from your blog? Are you also polluting the niche? Maybe it’s worth to rethink after all,

Providing Something, That’s What People Love

by Melvin · Jul 9, 2008

So I don’t really know if I can still compete to the blogging Idol. I would be entering the busiest week of this month. If you aren’t subscribed to my feed then consider subscribing now! 😉

Most people are thinking “how can I make my site popular?” And I admit, this is something that everyone of us wants but only few can have it. You see all the tips everywhere on how to run a blog and get tons of traffic and readers and how to promote and so. But the truth is, it boils down on how you make other people like your site, how you can provide them something that is useful. For this matter let’s take some examples on sites that do this one very well.

JohnChow.com – I know many are despising and hating Chow for putting so much ads on his site, for doing ten paid reviews a day, for having posts not related to making money online and more. But does it make his traffic suffer? how about the comments? Not even close! The truth about Chow’s traffic is that people enjoy him as him! I have seen many video posts of Chow and he’s very hilarious (looks very hilarious)! In this way, he provides ENTERTAINMENT for people like us. Of course, he’s still one of the more established make money online blog. But he does this with a twist! That’s what make John Chow’s blog grow!

JackBook.com – Well I am sure not many of you know this site. But I think it’s a popular one! Jacky Supit, the owner is a Malaysian blogger. Upon looking at his blog you can count on both of you’re fingers why you will not like his site so much. Plenty of ads, lack of value of posts, atrocious grammar (worse than mine), an ugly tagline of “a master of blogger”, a 728X60 advertisement at the top of his header and doing reviews about casinos! Yeah, I don’t really much comment on his site. So why there are about 50,000 people following his site? Because he provides things! He converts wordpress themes to blogger for free, he shares his hacks to blogger blogs, he let people scorn at him, he’s very generous with most people and many more. That’s because he started with Blogger and then later moved with wordpress and he’s also a good coder. To count the rate of positives over negatives is just too much. Now, no wonder why many people are subscribed to his feed.

DoshDosh.com Dosh Dosh is probably my favorite blog. It is probably one of the more super duper informative blog about many things. Blogging, Social Meda, Internet Marketing and so. With Doshdosh I know people don’t bother with the anime faces at his blog. Now think if someone unpopular do this tactic. I’m sure people would question it and scorn at it. Also Dosh Dosh has also decreased his posting frequency. I think he’s just posting two to three times a week! Does it affect his traffic? No! Because every single post there is marked with educational and proven tips and techniques (in a formal language) that we could surely apply.

You see, these blogs are blogs that other people can easily think the reverse way what we (I) think of them. But because they have overdelivered with something that is beneficial to us, readers, they remained to be at the top of their niche. At the end it’s not important, how your site looks like, how you hide your privacy too much and even where you came from! It boils down to how you can greatly affect the society, and that is what people will follow!

You and you’re blog, what do you provide to the society? Do you just do it in hopes that you’ll make money from it sooner than later? Or you really have a genuine intention of providing something?

University Kid vs. The Net Fool Blogs Head To Head Premiere

by Melvin · Jun 22, 2008

So today is gong to be the premiere of the bloggers head to head. You can recall a couple of weeks ago that I have really worked for this one. I am very elated that at last this head to head has now started. I wanted to thank Mr. Daniel Scocco because he had allowed me to use this very popular face-off. You can visit his blog at Daily Blog Tips.

Ok so for the premiere, we have Jason Pereira of The University Kid and Jim of The Net Fools. I think this is a great premiere as these two blogs have really established something in the blogging and internet marketing world. They also interact well with people as their content is very natural and has a lot of humor packed into it. And thank you so much for the interview. 🙂

	Jason	Jim
Describe yourself in less than 5 words?	Never serious, always lazy. 🙂	Determined businessman focused on success
What is your favorite breakfast?	The full English breakfast – eggs, sausages, bacon, hash browns, orange juice etc. More of a brunch I guess because I can’t eat all of that unless I’m real hungry.	Cocoa Krispies, of course. It says “I’m professional, but I like to party”
How long have you been blogging?	Since November last year, however I only took an active interest in networking and promoting in the middle of January 2008	I’ve been blogging for just a bit over a year to this point, it’s been a long road to get to where I am now… but once you get a foothold somewhere, ventures in the future are a lot easier
Any story behind choosing that domain name?	I was out of ideas, thought that there weren’t too many established university students with a blog that were making money online, and had to pick a domain that came free with my hosting, there wasn’t much risk.	I was just brainstorming for a name and I wanted something fun that would be a good bubble term for all the stuff I was attempting to write about. The “fool” seemed like a good approach and “net” is just
How many uniques are you getting monthly?	Anywhere between 10,000 on a bad month to 30,000 on a good month.	Somewhere around 10,000 every month
What is your average blog income?	Around $500, give or take a couple hundred. This is direct income from the blog itself, from ad sales, reviews, affiliate sales etc. However, indirectly I have developed an $X,XXX income from the blog, in the form of joint ventures and project launches.	I’m averaging about $500 a month
Do you read other blogs feeds? How many do you track?	I’m subscribed to about 15 but haven’t checked them in ages. I’m more the traditional type, prefer reading blogs on the actual website… I’d say I read about 20 – 40 daily, some A Listers, some B Listers, some friends and the rest people that have commented on TUK.	Yeah, I have a whole mess of feeds in my Google RSS Reader. Probably around 40-50 names in there, it’s essential to keep in touch with as many people as possible to succeed in this business
How did you gain your feed subscribers?	Contests and guest posts. Can’t beat them for getting you a truckload of subscribers fast. However, I’ve not promoted it like I should have; if I put the energy into the blog I’d have five times the subscribers I have now. Gaining recognition etc is not too important for me and TUK; I have a small group of friends that read it and that is enough (although that circle of friends seems to be growing daily  )	If I knew that, I’d be a very rich man, haha. Lots of my readers have come out from contests I have run, others have just stumbled upon my website and still others have been referred over to me. You never can tell exactly what is happening when people are subscribing. I like to think its my superior content that got me readers.
What keeps a blogger from making money from his blog?	Laziness, nothing else. Lack of knowledge is one of the things, but if people were not lazy they’d do research and everything so it all eventually leads to laziness. By doing simple things – things that anyone can do… link building, guest posting, networking for contests etc, people could easily (and I’m including myself in this) get thousands of readers daily and make lots of money. However, few do; partly because they’re lazy and partly because for a return on time, blogging is not one of the best ways to go.	Wasting time is the number one thing. People spend so much time monetizing and analyzing stats that they forget to write good content and stay active on other blogs to drive traffic
When does a blogger have to consider monetizing	From the get go, especially if you’re in any niche related to internet marketing. It’s gotten to the stage where people expect ads on the websites they visit and if you keep your site clean and then suddenly pop some ads on them, they are going to be pissed off. Let it be known from the beginning that you are looking to make money from your blog and you won’t have a problem.	Consider monetizing from the get go. People that tell you not to monetize until you have a cult following are out of their minds. It’s essential to have a game plan from the start, regardless of whether or not you actually put the ads up, for functionality purposes. I would start right of the bat selling ads to make some extra revenue and appear as an authority on the blogosphere
What makes your blog unique from others?	Me. Hehe. Well, that’s the main reason – the blog is about my personal entrepreneur experiences and projects, which differ from other entrepreneurs, good and bad.	My blog is unique because of the design and what I write about. Look as hard as you want, you aren’t going to find another stock market blog that talk about affiliate marketing on the internet
What’s the biggest goal for this blog?	Probably to meet more people I can network with, and eventually sell for five figures. No urgency though. 🙂	I want to eventually hit 1,000 RSS subscribers,that would be a big moment for me and the blog. I really am a lot more concerned with my readers than making money or any of that. Every little bit helps, and so far I am on pace to break 1,000 within the year. Of course, things do become more challenging as you work along
Give me a blog you admire and why?	It would probably be Darren Rowse of Problogger or Daniel Scocco of Daily Blog Tips. Despite being relevant giants in the industry, they’re always honest and haven’t done anything that’s pissed me off yet. 🙂	I admire GarryConn.com because his content is honestly some of the best I’ve seen and he isn’t afraid to start a fight. The fact that he puts out so much content all the time is really eye-opening, and he recently got into competition with John Cow… who honestly had a lot more going for him. Despite this, Garry knows that even if he doesn’t come out on top, he’ll be a winner. I admire that

To Monetize Or To Not

by Melvin · Jun 13, 2008

monetize or not? So today I am going to set my views about monetizing blogs and when should you start it. I have read several blog posts about this but I think I’m going to have my share of what my thoughts are about monetizing blogs too early. Doing my own research, I have found out that 80% of blogs that are created have goals of putting advertisements on it and make the most out of it. And if I’m gonna base it with what I have seen most, I can say that out of 80% only 10-15% make decent money from their blog.

Monetizing a blog too early is an issue for a long time. I remember a great friend Carl Ocab writing a post that one should monetize early. Obviously I commented explaining my side and he had his reply to my comment. So back to monetizing I think it’s not really bad to monetize the blog very early. In fact you can sell your space cheap if your blog is new. But what I think most people are forgetting is that you don’t really need to expect a lot from it. Oftentimes, one would put a chitika banner and upon seeing that the blog hasn’t even made a dollar on a week, he would put the banner out and say that chitika isn’t effective. Net Business Blog owner Matt Coddlington said that monetizing your blog early will help you understand that it doesn’t go that easy.

Why not monetize? Well I think the single reason I can say people must need to understand is that they have to work their traffic first. In my experience when you’re traffic starts increasing then money wouldn’t be that hard. The problem when people start monetizing is that their focus shifts from acquiring a lot of traffic first to working so hard on monetizing. They keep on signing on different programs, work hard on ad placements, tweak their layouts to accommodate ads so they already forgot the need for traffic. I know you guys heard it already that you can’t focus on two things. You must always set your priorities and then do what should have been done.

I hope I made a point here. I’m not against monetizing new blogs. In fact you may see me work for monetizing this blog in few weeks or so. The key is always the traffic. In every income report of the famous John Chow you always see him stress in the last paragraph to drive truckloads of traffic first, before starting to explore monetization options. If you intend to monetize you’re blog early then just don’t expect too much. I know it’s hard to be patient but if you really want to reap the fruits of you’re blog then you must work well for it.

I think it’s like having sex. You don’t enjoy your partner if she’s just around 10-16 years old (tell me if you do). And you would certainly enjoy her when you do her on her peak which 18 years old onwards. Am I missing something?

If you like this post you may want to sphinn it or digg or reddit or just subscribe to my feeds.

Flawed Template, New Logo, Great Plans

by Melvin · Jun 10, 2008

Update: Rajaie has fixed my template and I really thank him for that. You can visit him here

So our class just took 4 hours and already went home and there’s pretty a whole lot of time to blog. Right now I’m gonna share you the things that took place for the week as well as plans

New Logo –> Yeah I think it’s great. Someone at bp told me to make a logo and so I did. I head to digital point forums and have someone for me to carve out one. Actually I purchased three so just in case this logo flunks, I still have a backup.

Threaded Plugin Comments –> is not supported in this template I guess. I really really love Brian’s threaded comment because it makes your blog more alive but I guess I’m not that blessed to use it…

Link colors, wtf! –> So this is my biggest embarrassment thus far. Everytime I ask how to change the color of the links to blue, people tend to look at me and say i’m a fool. Well the truth is, I really can’t. I have asked help from every forums, sitepoint, dp, blog premiere everywhere but none seemed to solve my case. I know you are gonna say I should edit the style.css and look for the a part or maybe a:link and replace the hex code. But to tell you guys, it really isn’t working. I’m close on hiring someone to do that simple thing for me. But of course it’s better to get away with it free. So who’s willing to help me? I’m gonna give my theme to you and resolve my case… For now links can be determined when you hover you’re mouse and the color changes to red.

Head to Head –> So yesterday I shot Daniel of Daily Blog Tips an email regarding whether I can use his concept of blogger face off but with a little variation. He said yes and boom! I can do it now also. I’me very excited about this new feature because it gives smaller blogs a chance to get featured.

Great Girls Friday –> So another great plan for the blog. Shoemoney is running a free shirt friday right and me with GSF. The main goal here is to feature girls I like on my blog every friday and giving a link back at them. It varies. I can interview lady bloggers out there (I’m targeting the beautiful Lisa Bettany) or have a picture with a beautiful girl here in Philippines (you know there are a lot of great girls here 😉 )

Go Boston Celtics –> So with the series up 2-0 I think Lakers will bounce back strong but I’m sure Boston will prevail. By the way I have a basketball blog entitled Triviality of Basketball. All the expenses for this blog are taken to that blog’s earnings… Are you in the Celtics bandwagon?