Okay this has been brewing for a while and against all my powers of restraint I just have to ask - what exactly is a better blogger?
Really.
I'm one of Darren Rowse's 121,000 RSS readers and hate to admit it. Did I say "reader" - I should have said I get his daily Post Title sent to my inbox and then two seconds later I delete it. Today I actually clicked through to his blog just to read the 121,000 comments he must get from his "riveting" posts or in this case his "guest" poster; some fella called Seth Waite who must have stayed up all night in the throws of ecstasy, just waiting for Darren to publish his eye opening work entitled "Forget the Fatal Flaws of Blogging". Thank GAWD I read it - now I know that I have to overcome the two things that have been holding me back - WISDOM and Effort!
CheeeeeRiiiiiist - Darren must want to put a gun to his head. Imagine starting a blog about blogging, somehow attaining an audience for such an inane topic and then having to barf out a fluff post everyday to keep the masses happy. Turns out I'm not the only one who deletes his daily updates unread - apparently 120,995 or so other twits like me also keep the subscription but never read a word. All the posts I checked managed to draw 50 comments or so which sucks given the vast army of subscribers. Those who do comment are nothing more than the usual ass lickers and bone heads you'll find spewing crap on other A list sites.
I don't blame Rowse of course - he's just trying to make a buck and why not, by cashing in on the advertisers who think they are going to make money from his readers. The thing is - every post is as mind numbing as the last - "Some arbitrary number of days to be a better blogger" which consist of lists of horseshit items like the following;
(Keep in mind that Rowse claims his blogging tips are to help you make money online - check his byline "Blog Tips to help you make money blogging")
I present Darren Rowse's Problogger's tips with my own version in bold.
1. Giving up too early - blogs take time to take off. DOH
2. Putting off starting a blog - waiting until everything is just right before launching can mean you never do it. Uh Doh again
3. Echoing what everyone else is talking about - say something unique and share your opinion. Haven't I heard this a thousand times already!
4. Not blogging on your own domain - I know some swear by using hosted blogs but if you want ultimate control of your blog it is best to do it on your own domain and hosting. Hehe - Yup - no one could possibly be successful using a free host...
5. Irregular Posting - you don�t have to post every day but try to establish a regular rhythm of posting. Oops really - regular posting matters huh? Shit...
6. Being too apologetic - �sorry I haven�t written for a while� can end up being the most common type of post on a blog - yes apologize if you�ve messed up but don�t be too hard on yourself - keep investing your time into building your blog up rather than highlighting it�s problems. Gee sorry I haven't been posting for a while... Why did I gain 1800 subscribers over the last 3 months with only 3 posts?
7. Focusing more upon Quick Traffic than Loyal Readers - there�s nothing wrong with a big rush of traffic from social media or another blog - but just as important as that is building reader loyalty. Sometimes growing one reader at a time is more fruitful than getting spikes of traffic that never returns. Yah - or maybe it's better to just get search engine traffic and make money instead...
8. Clutter - too many buttons, widgets, navigation elements. What difference does it make if no one ever clicks through from their email or feedreader?
9. Great Posts but Terrible Titles - don�t short change yourself by investing hours into writing great content only to slap a mediocre headline/title onto it. Yah, Careful or you may never get a reader because your post titles only attract targeted search traffic...
10. Not Defining a Topic - the most successful blogs have a well defined topic/niche (or they target a certain demographic) Holy Crap - he actually got one right but not sure how he defines a topic using "Snappy Post Titles"
11. Choosing a Topic you have no Interest in - for your blog to be successful you�ll need to blog regularly on your topic for years - if you want to sustain it choose something you have an interest in or love for or you�ll run out of steam. So why are all my 10 post sites targeting acne and weightloss still making money years after I lost interest in them? Wait - I never had an interest in them.
12. Too many Ads - I don�t have a problem with ads on a blog from Day #1 but when they overpower the content and push it down the page too far they hurt your chances of building a loyal readership. Yah - readers hate it but they make money from the search visitors. I hate it when people don't read my crap and just click ads...
13. Being too Insular/Expecting Readers to come to You - many bloggers starting out fail to realize that the more you put yourself out there and interact with other bloggers the more chance you have of being read. So get out and spam Darren's comments and make yourself known or write a fluff post on his blog telling people they need "Wisdom and Effort" - I bet Seth is rolling in cash today.
14. Blogging about Making Money Blogging (as a first blog) - I�ve lost count of how many bloggers I�ve seen start blogs on the topic of blogging for money when they�ve never made money blogging. Start with something you know. True I guess unless you plan on outranking everyone in the niche... hehe.
15. Not Being Useful - blogs that meet needs and solve problems are blogs that people will keep coming back to and which they�ll spread news of to their network. Like this post is useful for beginners to stop wasting time reading Problogger.
16. Writing for Search Engines Before Humans - you can always tell when a blogger discovers Search Engine Optimization for the first time. Suddenly titles don�t make sense, keywords appear in posts for no real reason, links to other pages on the blog that are irrelevant to the post keep being used. Learn SEO - but keep your readers as your #1 priority. Hahaha - or just dominate the serps and learn that readers don't click ads or buy crap.
17. Becoming a Stats-a-holic - the lure of checking your stats is understandable and common to new (and older) bloggers - but it can become an unhealthy obsession that leads to distraction and depression. I can't imagine how depressing it is to see a stat like 121k of RSS subscribers and only 35 comments on your post...
18. Link Baiting with Personal Attack - taking pot shots at other bloggers might get you some quick traffic - but hate breeds hate and the type of readers you attract and the culture it�ll breed on your blog could come back to bite you. Plus you�ll get a reputation that you might not want to live with. I can live with it...
19. Not Knowing Why You�re Blogging - while most of us don�t really know what we�re doing at the start - the faster you can work out what the purpose of your blog is the sooner you�ll start moving toward achieving that purpose. The sooner you realize that all your posts are inane fluff the better - just get those RSS subscribers and the advertisers will line up. Or quit being a blogger and become an internet marketer.
20. Not Selling Yourself - one thing I don�t think many bloggers get is the power of blogs to sell yourself as a blogger. There�s nothing wrong with monetizing a blog with ads - but maybe a better long term strategy is to use a blog to advertise who you are and what you can offer readers. You could offer your readers a list like this while telling people you don't like to publicize yourself like Darren's post publicizing himself... "Since launching 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Workbook there have been many reviews written by other bloggers of the resource. I�ve not really linked up to too many of them as I�m naturally a little shy about promoting my own work - but today was challenged by another blogger to step out of my comfort zone a little and share some of the testimonies"
21. Thinking You Have to Know it All - one of the best things about blogs is that they�re a great medium for involving your readers in the process of learning. Leave space for others to interact, share what they know and contribute. Apparently I do everything you shouldn't do according to Darren Rowse which means I definitely don't know it all - whew at least I got that one right...
Now while I am having a little fun at Darren's expense I don't blame him for all the crap he spews - he has to come up with something everyday and the fact is there is only one thing you need to be a better blogger - be interesting. If people find you interesting you will develop readers just by word of mouth. It may take a while but it will happen. Vic developed an audience in a heart beat because he was fun to read while he was posting on Blogger Unleashed. Ben is interesting and has become a favorite in a short time on his site Make Money Online with SEO. My real point however, and it has always been the same, is that if you are a beginner trying to make money online you will be wasting your time reading any advice given out by the A-List bloggers. They are bloggers and while they make money due to their popularity they do not give advice on how to make money online if you are not a popular blogger. Telling people to become a popular blogger is not a recipe for success. Spend your time learning SEO, Internet marketing and how to build sites that can convert search traffic into buyers and you will be miles ahead of the Bloggers. I started this blog long after Rowse was a popular blogger and while I don't have his fame I can assure you I make more money than he does. From free hosted blogs no less and the reason is simple - I get search traffic by the ton looking for what I have to offer.
My readers have heard this before but this post is really for the 5000 or so people who dropped in from the search engines today. There are three camps in the "Make Money Online" racket and the sooner you get them straight the better.
Camp 1 - the Bloggers. Also known as the A-list. This is Darren Rowse's camp and if you find any site with links pointing to him or John Chow, Shoemoney, Copy Blogger, Yaro etc then do yourself a favor and run. You will piss away your time trying to be another A-Lister and fail.
Camp 2 - the Product Pimps. Also known as the list marketers. I won't bother with the many names suffice to say these people make money selling crap using email lists and I'm sure your inbox is already full of them. They hang out on forums like Warrior and Digital Point and exist to make money off of you. They have never produced anything that will enable you to make money yourself. Do not waste your time on those forums - nothing but useless advice from people who have never made a dime online.
Camp 3 - the Internet Marketers. This is the far end of the pool and to date very few of them have come forward as they really do make money online and don't for obvious reasons spend time telling others how they do it. Aside from myself and Vic and Ben as mentioned above, there is Courtney Tuttle who gives no nonsense advice on his blogs and offers the best paid course online with the Keyword Academy Coaching program. Over the years I have urged a lot of otherwise quiet Internet Marketers to come forward and you can find a number of them in my sidebar. The common denominator is that we understand SEO and make money from the search engines and not from readers. All the info you need to make a living online is freely given by us as we are not competing with each other selling the latest crap ebook to bloggers. We don't target bloggers - we target civilians and provide targeted info to the people actively searching for it online. Our methods worked 5 years ago and still work today and you don't have to waste time with dumb ass things like Twitter, Facebook, Stumbleupon or any of the other time sucking social network sites.
I get a dozen emails a day asking "how to make money online?" - the answer is to start reading this blog, or Vic's, or Ben's or spend a dollar and sign up with Court. If you really want to make money then get off your ass, read the right stuff and run like hell if someone tries to tell you how to be a better blogger!
I tee off in an hour...
Cheers
Griz
Showing posts with label Internet Marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Internet Marketing. Show all posts
Friday, August 14, 2009
Monday, March 31, 2008
You Guys Broke Blogger... Again!
Google might be the "be all" and "end all" when it comes to the Internet but it's little sister - Blogger.com - is having a hard time keeping up with all of my readers comments. The last post once again pushed past the 200 comment barrier and Blogger started acting a bit strange on my end again. Several comments are still in my queue but I can't seem to get Blogger to post them and after trying to answer several that did get posted - to no avail - I have given up. If any of you are still awaiting a response from me then please post your query on these comments and I will catch up with this post.
I'm beginning to think Blogger doesn't have too many blogs that get a lot of comments!
I have removed the Captcha to see if things improve while commenting and as long as the spammers don't get to ambitious I'll leave it turned off. I am going to turn off the approval function as well so that you can banter amongst yourselves faster than waiting for me to approve the comments. Again I hope the spammers don't ruin this.
I have talked with Terry from The Honest Way about using his forum in regards to issues of um.... a sensitive nature like Backlink Solutions and Linkvana and a few other things that I don't want to post about on this site. I am waiting for him to set things up in a secure manner so that we won't have prying eyes and so that we all can remain anonymous if possible.
Several of you have sent me emails expressing interest in joining in on these discussions and I haven't replied directly but I have a list compiled and will contact you when Terry is ready. If any one else is interested then please send me an email with "BS and LV" in the subject line and I will add you to the list.
For all of you who are busy trying to outrank my Asia'h blog and want to take home the $500 I suggest you join in on the forum discussion as that is where I will explain what I have done and how you can do it too once you have all given up and proclaimed me the SEO master. Hehe. See... Internet Marketing for details.
I am also working on a new affiliate sales post and example blog that I think will be best unveiled on the forum as I don't want anymore people flagging the sites I show you - this has happened a few too many times on here and kinda makes a guy wonder why he bothers. I know 99% of my readers are decent folk but I'd like to ring the neck of that other 1%!
Lastly, A lot of you are busy creating Blogger blogs in order to try out my methods and have been sending me a number of emails asking how to do certain things with Blogger. I have just created a post on how to modify the width - the most asked question so far - and posted it on my Blogger Basics for Beginners blog. I will add more modifications as the need arises and if you want to know how to change or do anything with Blogger just let me know in the comments on that blog. The posts will all be step by step tutorials using screenshots so all of you should be able to follow along without a degree in Computer programming - I'm about as ignorant as anyone when it comes to coding so if I can do it - so can you. I'm sure if I make any mistakes my alert readers who do know what they are doing will jump all over me for it... lol.
Ok, that's it for my little update - I'll let you all know when the forum is ready for us.
Cheers,
Griz
Again, if I missed any one's comment on the last post let me know below.
I'm beginning to think Blogger doesn't have too many blogs that get a lot of comments!
I have removed the Captcha to see if things improve while commenting and as long as the spammers don't get to ambitious I'll leave it turned off. I am going to turn off the approval function as well so that you can banter amongst yourselves faster than waiting for me to approve the comments. Again I hope the spammers don't ruin this.
I have talked with Terry from The Honest Way about using his forum in regards to issues of um.... a sensitive nature like Backlink Solutions and Linkvana and a few other things that I don't want to post about on this site. I am waiting for him to set things up in a secure manner so that we won't have prying eyes and so that we all can remain anonymous if possible.
Several of you have sent me emails expressing interest in joining in on these discussions and I haven't replied directly but I have a list compiled and will contact you when Terry is ready. If any one else is interested then please send me an email with "BS and LV" in the subject line and I will add you to the list.
For all of you who are busy trying to outrank my Asia'h blog and want to take home the $500 I suggest you join in on the forum discussion as that is where I will explain what I have done and how you can do it too once you have all given up and proclaimed me the SEO master. Hehe. See... Internet Marketing for details.
I am also working on a new affiliate sales post and example blog that I think will be best unveiled on the forum as I don't want anymore people flagging the sites I show you - this has happened a few too many times on here and kinda makes a guy wonder why he bothers. I know 99% of my readers are decent folk but I'd like to ring the neck of that other 1%!
Lastly, A lot of you are busy creating Blogger blogs in order to try out my methods and have been sending me a number of emails asking how to do certain things with Blogger. I have just created a post on how to modify the width - the most asked question so far - and posted it on my Blogger Basics for Beginners blog. I will add more modifications as the need arises and if you want to know how to change or do anything with Blogger just let me know in the comments on that blog. The posts will all be step by step tutorials using screenshots so all of you should be able to follow along without a degree in Computer programming - I'm about as ignorant as anyone when it comes to coding so if I can do it - so can you. I'm sure if I make any mistakes my alert readers who do know what they are doing will jump all over me for it... lol.
Ok, that's it for my little update - I'll let you all know when the forum is ready for us.
Cheers,
Griz
Again, if I missed any one's comment on the last post let me know below.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Internet Marketing isn't Blogging
Bloggers don't make money online - Internet Marketers do. It has taken me a while to understand why so many of my readers just don't get it. Bloggers want to make money but they want to do it blogging. They have integrity. They want to be recognized by other bloggers. They want to be famous. They think the A-list makes the most money online.
Internet Marketers only want to make money. They use blogs but they don't blog. You have never heard of them. They make a lot more money than the A-list.
I have been telling bloggers for some time now how to make money online and it isn't working. You can only make money by getting large volumes of traffic and it has to be traffic that will spend money on something they want or will click ads in pursuit of something they want. Bloggers spend all their time trying to get other bloggers to read their blogs. Bloggers don't spend money and even if they did there are not enough of them to make a living on. Internet Marketers spend all their time optimizing pages for the search engines and getting backlinks.
You have heard me say all this before and yet you still chase bloggers.
A little perspective
The blog you are reading now averages about 2000 visitors a day - 3/4 of the traffic comes from Google. The rest are bloggers. Adsense earnings average about $100/day. Affiliate sales are sporadic at best and earn me maybe $500 a month. This is not an affiliate sales site however and could do a lot better if I concentrated my efforts on the search traffic. I also make about $100 a week selling leads (Project Payday).
Most of you would think this is a pretty good income and you will continue to build up your blog in hopes of achieving a similar income. Most of you will never achieve it because you will never get the search traffic. You will try and get more readers.
The screenshot below is of one of my statcounter accounts. The stats you see are for all the affiliate sites I have built over the past three months. Most are for products on clickbank, CJ and ROI Rocket. Affiliate products have a decent return for about three months and then interest drops off drastically. A few products like SEO Elite and Keyword Elite stand the test of time but they are an exception - they are different from all the rest because they are actually useful. Most products are crap.
I optimize affiliate sales blogs just like my Adsense blogs. I pre-sell the product and direct the visitor to my affiliate link. You will see that I have as many failures as successes. Every site on the list is or was on page 1 of the serp's but some don't generate interest, others get sandboxed and some generate a lot of traffic. This past month I generated about 300,000 page views. 1% clicked through to the sales page. About 3000 visitors. 10% of these actually bought a product - approx 300 sales (289 to be exact). My average commission is $23 for a total of just under $6700. I spent a grand total of nothing on hosting or domains. I spent nothing on PPC. The only expense I have is buying backlinks - about $750 this month but this should be divided equally between all several hundred sites that I manage - about $3.26 per site.
Click all images to enlarge.
Remember the Asia'h Epperson blog I created?
I spent less than an hour on the blog - creating it, writing 5 posts and collecting 20 backlinks. I haven't touched it in a month.
It has generated almost 10,000 page views.
It still ranks number 5. It outranks lots of older established PR sites.
Why?
I want you folks to think about everything you think you know about making money online.
Do you need an aged site?
Do you need a site with tons of quality content?
Do you need a fancy wordpress blog or website?
Do you need web 2.0?
Do you need stumblers and diggers?
Let's see who has been paying attention.
You tell me why I can create free blogs for Adsense or Affiliate sales and rank on top of the serp's with little content and do it all in a matter of days and create a steady stream of hundreds of thousands of visitors.
Oh, in case I still don't have your attention...
The best answer will get $500 from me - yup - straight to your paypal account.
There is a catch though - the best answer will be the person who shows me and not tells me - the money goes to the first person who outranks my Asia'h blog for the term "Asia'h Epperson". ( I will not do a thing to keep my ranking ) If any of you are serious about making money online then prove it.
I am serious - I really want to know if anybody has learned a thing or if I am just wasting my time with this blog. I can make a lot more money turning it into an affiliate sales page like all the other sites in the "make money online" niche.
Cheers,
Griz
Internet Marketers only want to make money. They use blogs but they don't blog. You have never heard of them. They make a lot more money than the A-list.
I have been telling bloggers for some time now how to make money online and it isn't working. You can only make money by getting large volumes of traffic and it has to be traffic that will spend money on something they want or will click ads in pursuit of something they want. Bloggers spend all their time trying to get other bloggers to read their blogs. Bloggers don't spend money and even if they did there are not enough of them to make a living on. Internet Marketers spend all their time optimizing pages for the search engines and getting backlinks.
You have heard me say all this before and yet you still chase bloggers.
A little perspective
The blog you are reading now averages about 2000 visitors a day - 3/4 of the traffic comes from Google. The rest are bloggers. Adsense earnings average about $100/day. Affiliate sales are sporadic at best and earn me maybe $500 a month. This is not an affiliate sales site however and could do a lot better if I concentrated my efforts on the search traffic. I also make about $100 a week selling leads (Project Payday).
Most of you would think this is a pretty good income and you will continue to build up your blog in hopes of achieving a similar income. Most of you will never achieve it because you will never get the search traffic. You will try and get more readers.
The screenshot below is of one of my statcounter accounts. The stats you see are for all the affiliate sites I have built over the past three months. Most are for products on clickbank, CJ and ROI Rocket. Affiliate products have a decent return for about three months and then interest drops off drastically. A few products like SEO Elite and Keyword Elite stand the test of time but they are an exception - they are different from all the rest because they are actually useful. Most products are crap.
I optimize affiliate sales blogs just like my Adsense blogs. I pre-sell the product and direct the visitor to my affiliate link. You will see that I have as many failures as successes. Every site on the list is or was on page 1 of the serp's but some don't generate interest, others get sandboxed and some generate a lot of traffic. This past month I generated about 300,000 page views. 1% clicked through to the sales page. About 3000 visitors. 10% of these actually bought a product - approx 300 sales (289 to be exact). My average commission is $23 for a total of just under $6700. I spent a grand total of nothing on hosting or domains. I spent nothing on PPC. The only expense I have is buying backlinks - about $750 this month but this should be divided equally between all several hundred sites that I manage - about $3.26 per site.
Click all images to enlarge.
Remember the Asia'h Epperson blog I created?
I spent less than an hour on the blog - creating it, writing 5 posts and collecting 20 backlinks. I haven't touched it in a month.
It has generated almost 10,000 page views.
It still ranks number 5. It outranks lots of older established PR sites.
Why?
I want you folks to think about everything you think you know about making money online.
Do you need an aged site?
Do you need a site with tons of quality content?
Do you need a fancy wordpress blog or website?
Do you need web 2.0?
Do you need stumblers and diggers?
Let's see who has been paying attention.
You tell me why I can create free blogs for Adsense or Affiliate sales and rank on top of the serp's with little content and do it all in a matter of days and create a steady stream of hundreds of thousands of visitors.
Oh, in case I still don't have your attention...
The best answer will get $500 from me - yup - straight to your paypal account.
There is a catch though - the best answer will be the person who shows me and not tells me - the money goes to the first person who outranks my Asia'h blog for the term "Asia'h Epperson". ( I will not do a thing to keep my ranking ) If any of you are serious about making money online then prove it.
I am serious - I really want to know if anybody has learned a thing or if I am just wasting my time with this blog. I can make a lot more money turning it into an affiliate sales page like all the other sites in the "make money online" niche.
Cheers,
Griz
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Niche Marketing
How to Find Profitable Niches
In my last post I gave you a number of links to check out in order to show you how niche markets can be set up as well as the types of topics you can use. In truth you can find a niche for just about everything but finding a niche that can make money is the hard part. I approach niche marketing in reverse - I look for something that I can sell and then create the niche around it.
I have four primary revenue streams online. Adsense, Affiliate Sales, Advertising and Lead Generation. Before I decide on a niche I make sure that there is at least one revenue stream that will work with the niche. Preferably two. In most cases a site set up for Adsense will also work well with affiliate sales. Advertising and capturing leads also work fairly well together. As a rule I don't usually have more than two revenue streams on a site as it tends to disperse traffic rather than channel it. I will explain this further as we go.
My process for finding niches and how to monetize them always starts with Adsense.
Adsense niches are the easiest to find. This requires little more than Google and a couple of keyword tools like SEO and Keyword Elite. Every time I Google a term I pay attention to the paid sponsors listed in the right hand column. If I see a full page or more of advertisers then I run a keyword list and see how many searches are performed each month for the main keyword and the long tails. Next I check out the CPC that the advertisers are paying. If the numbers look promising then I use SEO Elite to check out the competition listed on page 1 of the serp's - the pagerank and the backlinks each site has. This tells me how much work is involved in overtaking them.
This may surprise you but most niches don't have a lot of strong competition - usually only two or three of the sites have any knowledge of SEO. If you have read my blog then you should be able to spot an optimized site from an un-optimized site. I don't have to read more than the URL, Blog Title and Post Title to tell and you shouldn't either.
If I find a keyword that can be optimized for Adsense and lacks strong competition re: Search Engine Optimization, I then go back to the sponsored advertisers listed on Google's right hand column. Are they affiliate advertisers? Are they corporate advertisers? Are they brick and mortar companies offering a service? Are they selling a product they produce? While Adsense is a nice little money maker it pales in comparison to what you can earn with affiliate sales or even the right kind of advertising.
Ideally you want to dominate a niche that involves corporate advertising as this is where the big money is. I learned this quite by accident.
An Example.
My Best niche is in the Fishing industry. I started the site as a simple Adsense earner as there are hoards of searches and tons of advertisers selling everything from fishing trips to fly rods. The niche also allowed me to incorporate affiliate sales as there is no shortage of fishing related books and products available. More money is spent on Golf and Fishing each year than any other sport. The long and short of this story is that as I climbed the serp's my Adsense revenue grew nicely but my affiliate sales really sucked. I made a new friend recently online, Mike who is in the Golf niche and he mentioned that the niche sucked because 60 year old men don't buy anything online. I laughed because I found out the same thing goes for fishing.
Had the Adsense not been working I would have abandoned the site. I changed direction and stopped writing affiliate sales articles and started writing Adsense articles. Lots and lots of really loooooooooong articles with every fishing related term I could think of. This got me indexed for all sorts of keywords and weird phrases which, in turn brought in more visitors who clicked my Ads in order to escape.
I have mentioned writing long articles before. This isn't a good idea if you are writing for readers but it is a killer strategy with Adsense. Two things always happen - your search traffic increases and you find new profitable keywords that you would never have thought of. A new keyword is a "Niche" btw. This is how I find most of my niches. It's how I have found all my profitable ones.
I am mentioning this because I know some of you won't create the kind of niches that Vic and Court have been discussing on their sites. Some of you probably don't have the time or interest in creating niche blogs. You already have a site that you have invested time in and have an interest in the subject matter. It's always easier to write about something you are interested in. This tactic is for you but you have to decide whether you want readers or money.
One of the byproducts of my long fishing articles was a surge in traffic for various terms that, while related to each other, weren't exactly related to the fishing niche directly. These indirect keywords were featured in their own posts and after gathering a few choice links they began bringing in more traffic than my fishing terms. I had stumbled upon a side niche that I would never have thought of on my own. As it turned out these readers weren't 60 year old men - they were wives and kids of the 60 year olds and they belonged to the category of people who do spend money online. Although I had ceased writing affiliate articles, my affiliate links were still on my sidebar and suddenly sales trickled in. Now I am not going to give away my niche but keep in mind that people will buy gifts for 60 year old men who like to fish. I had been targeting the wrong people when I started the site. In the end I took over the top four spots on the serp's for my keywords and this drew the attention of several corporate marketing types who had been unable to rank well with their own websites - the very people who produced the products that I outranked them for. Love it when that happens. If you can't beat me then join me and I now run very profitable ads sponsored by the top four corporate entities in the field.
I dropped the affiliate links in order to channel my traffic towards the advertisers - with what they pay I want to make sure that they get their money's worth and this can't be done if your traffic is dispersed by way of too many options. I still keep Adsense on the site and it makes a full time income on it's own. I am still writing huge posts and collecting new keywords to target. The niche is so vast that there is almost no limit to how much search traffic I can generate.
Now, I have brought this up so that those of you who have been blogging aimlessly (I mean that only in terms of not being optimized for anything that people search for) can start optimizing your existing blogs for terms that will draw traffic. It's never too late to do this and if you already have an aged site with a little PR this will be easier than starting over with a new blog.
This is how you create a multi-niche site. I now have 5 of these types of sites - all started out focused on a large general niche and then morphed into numerous side niches, some directly related and some not really related at all.
This blog is one of them. I started a campaign on here to target the term "Payday Loans". This niche is not related to the "make money online" niche and yet I have successfully added it to this blog. At the moment I rank on page 3 for payday loans but more than that I have keyword authority for hundreds of payday loan long tail terms. I am currently getting 40-50 visitors a day for these terms and the adsense CPC for this niche is in the $1.20 - $3.00 range - much higher than the CPC on my "make money" pages. While hard to nail down I estimate an additional Adsense earnings of about $5-$10 a day from this - all from writing 5 articles on the subject. This in spite of the fact that I am not ranking very well for the main keywords yet - but I will and my Adsense earnings will only keep growing.
A Word about Long Tail Keywords
The "make money online" niche has a limited number of long tails. By this I mean there are less than 200 variations of keywords people use to find this site. How many ways can you think of to ask Google to find you sites that help people make money online? In truth only about 15-20 keyword phrases are used in any meaningful amount. I rank on page 1 for almost all of them and traffic amounts to about 800 visitors a day if I combine all the terms used to find my blog. There is some room to grow but not much - it will probably top out at about 1200 or so visitors a day. Now compare this to Payday Loans. I keep track of long tail terms in all my niches. I paste them in notebook and note all the terms that are used more frequently than others - these are the terms I target with optimized backlinks in order to climb the serps. I quit counting the long tails for payday loans when they topped 300 different queries. I don't know how many ways you can ask Google about payday loans but every day I see a few new ones. The term "make money online" had a measly 15,000 searches last month and less than 30,000 searches if all the long tails are combined. See Below.
The Top Searches for "Make Money Online" last Month. (Click to Enlarge)
Compare that to people searching for Payday Loans and related long tails below.
The Top Searches for "Payday Loans" last Month. (Click to Enlarge)
How a Niche Evolves
I came across the Payday Loans niche because I had optimized a few pages for the term "Project Payday". I had chosen this program because it had a lot of searches at the time and I was looking for ways to monetize this blog. Turns out that Google considers the term Payday Loans to be related to "Project Payday" - it isn't but Google ranked my Project Payday pages high on the serp's for people searching for payday loan long tails. I noticed traffic showing up using payday loan queries and morphed my site in that direction - all because of writing posts on a topic that had nothing to do with payday loans other than the word "Payday". This is exactly the same way I came across the un-related niche on my fishing site. Below you will see the top keywords for the term "Project Payday".
Project Payday Search Queries
Another product I had targeted was "Roadmap to Riches" which sent me traffic for various "related terms" like "Make Money" and plain old "Money" - terms I hadn't been targeting with my "make money online" campaign. Both terms get more traffic than "make money online" and I added them to my list of targeted backlinks. I'm 15 in the serp's for "Make Money" and this has added another 18,000 potential visitors to my site. I will be adding more terms like "Business Opportunities" and others in future and this is how I grow a multi-niche site sideways. By continually adding targeted keywords you can build a huge amount of traffic to a blog that started out as a single keyword niche. This works best for blogs that have a general keyword niche like "Fishing" or "Plumbing" or "make money online". It doesn't work well with narrowly defined niches like "Croc Shoes".
Roadmap to Riches Search Queries
How effective is this. Look below and see what my visitors are searching for when they land on this blog.
Searches used to find this blog during the past hour.
This is what the traffic looks like all day long. This isn't you - my readers - this is all organic traffic provided by mostly Google. It keeps coming everyday - whether I post or not and it makes me money.
Monetization Techniques.
Both the Project Payday and Roadmap to Riches posts were written as negative reviews of the products. So how do you make money if you don't have an affiliate link? I'll tell you. If all the pages on page 1 of the serp's are affiliate sites then you can get to page 1 fast by writing an article that doesn't have an affiliate link. I have talked about this before but simply put Google will strive to give the person searching for information the most options available on the topic. A negative review is considered just as important as a positive review - shouldn't people be given both sides of a story?
This is how to rank high - so how do you profit from this? The plan was to force the owners of the programs to pay me off. What? I'm not a saint. I'm on here to make money. By turning people off of buying these products I had hoped the owners would have enough business sense to approach me and make me an offer in order to change my stance and funnel my traffic to them. Keep in mind that I didn't have any readers back then - just search traffic and ethically speaking I couldn't care less if I made money off of search traffic that I didn't know. This is one of the reasons it is hard to make money and have social traffic. I would never screw my readers so I have had to shelve a very profitable revenue stream on this blog - affiliate sales.
So did my plan work? Partly. Project Payday quit trying to sell a worthless ebook full of links for $35.00. Instead they offered their updated system free of charge if people would fill out an offer instead. (This involves IFW's - another subject I won't go into today.) They are paid by the companies making the offers for each person who takes out a trial membership in some product. Project Payday in turn set up a pay per lead program to attract leads. I changed my stance and now I am one of their best lead generators. They pay me $3.00 for every person I send to their site that fills out a free trial. This is a form of Lead Generation and has netted me about $1400 over the past three months. Not bad for writing a couple of articles.
The Roadmap to Riches plan didn't work - the owner of the program was apparently to dense to figure out how to do business online and the program never took off like it could have if he had got my help - oh well. It's all about experimentation. This tactic has worked quite often in my other niches and as unethical as it may seem - it's business and you may as well know some of the tricks of the trade if you are pursuing a career online. Your choice if you want to try this - just showing you some options, after all I'm the kind of person you will be competing with.
Ok I have rambled all over the place in attempting to show you how I find niches. This can't be helped as it isn't just a simple matter of picking a highly searched term and optimizing for it. You have to work in monetization factors right from the start and you have to know if there is room to grow the niche laterally in order to keep expanding. This is the opposite of most niche marketers who focus on a narrow subject and rinse and repeat from one keyword to the next. Both systems work but since Vic and others are showing how to do local niches I thought I might show a different angle to niche marketing. For those of you with sites already established you can try and morph into new terrain without starting over. I recommend both single niche and multi niche blogs as each offers their own unique forms of monetization and you want to spread your revenue streams around as much as possible.
I will be continuing the topic of niches in future posts but next up I want to discuss some of my recent findings in regards to Adsense and Social Traffic. My findings may surprise a few people - it surprised me.
Till then,
Cheers.
Griz
In my last post I gave you a number of links to check out in order to show you how niche markets can be set up as well as the types of topics you can use. In truth you can find a niche for just about everything but finding a niche that can make money is the hard part. I approach niche marketing in reverse - I look for something that I can sell and then create the niche around it.
I have four primary revenue streams online. Adsense, Affiliate Sales, Advertising and Lead Generation. Before I decide on a niche I make sure that there is at least one revenue stream that will work with the niche. Preferably two. In most cases a site set up for Adsense will also work well with affiliate sales. Advertising and capturing leads also work fairly well together. As a rule I don't usually have more than two revenue streams on a site as it tends to disperse traffic rather than channel it. I will explain this further as we go.
My process for finding niches and how to monetize them always starts with Adsense.
Adsense niches are the easiest to find. This requires little more than Google and a couple of keyword tools like SEO and Keyword Elite. Every time I Google a term I pay attention to the paid sponsors listed in the right hand column. If I see a full page or more of advertisers then I run a keyword list and see how many searches are performed each month for the main keyword and the long tails. Next I check out the CPC that the advertisers are paying. If the numbers look promising then I use SEO Elite to check out the competition listed on page 1 of the serp's - the pagerank and the backlinks each site has. This tells me how much work is involved in overtaking them.
This may surprise you but most niches don't have a lot of strong competition - usually only two or three of the sites have any knowledge of SEO. If you have read my blog then you should be able to spot an optimized site from an un-optimized site. I don't have to read more than the URL, Blog Title and Post Title to tell and you shouldn't either.
If I find a keyword that can be optimized for Adsense and lacks strong competition re: Search Engine Optimization, I then go back to the sponsored advertisers listed on Google's right hand column. Are they affiliate advertisers? Are they corporate advertisers? Are they brick and mortar companies offering a service? Are they selling a product they produce? While Adsense is a nice little money maker it pales in comparison to what you can earn with affiliate sales or even the right kind of advertising.
Ideally you want to dominate a niche that involves corporate advertising as this is where the big money is. I learned this quite by accident.
An Example.
My Best niche is in the Fishing industry. I started the site as a simple Adsense earner as there are hoards of searches and tons of advertisers selling everything from fishing trips to fly rods. The niche also allowed me to incorporate affiliate sales as there is no shortage of fishing related books and products available. More money is spent on Golf and Fishing each year than any other sport. The long and short of this story is that as I climbed the serp's my Adsense revenue grew nicely but my affiliate sales really sucked. I made a new friend recently online, Mike who is in the Golf niche and he mentioned that the niche sucked because 60 year old men don't buy anything online. I laughed because I found out the same thing goes for fishing.
Had the Adsense not been working I would have abandoned the site. I changed direction and stopped writing affiliate sales articles and started writing Adsense articles. Lots and lots of really loooooooooong articles with every fishing related term I could think of. This got me indexed for all sorts of keywords and weird phrases which, in turn brought in more visitors who clicked my Ads in order to escape.
I have mentioned writing long articles before. This isn't a good idea if you are writing for readers but it is a killer strategy with Adsense. Two things always happen - your search traffic increases and you find new profitable keywords that you would never have thought of. A new keyword is a "Niche" btw. This is how I find most of my niches. It's how I have found all my profitable ones.
I am mentioning this because I know some of you won't create the kind of niches that Vic and Court have been discussing on their sites. Some of you probably don't have the time or interest in creating niche blogs. You already have a site that you have invested time in and have an interest in the subject matter. It's always easier to write about something you are interested in. This tactic is for you but you have to decide whether you want readers or money.
One of the byproducts of my long fishing articles was a surge in traffic for various terms that, while related to each other, weren't exactly related to the fishing niche directly. These indirect keywords were featured in their own posts and after gathering a few choice links they began bringing in more traffic than my fishing terms. I had stumbled upon a side niche that I would never have thought of on my own. As it turned out these readers weren't 60 year old men - they were wives and kids of the 60 year olds and they belonged to the category of people who do spend money online. Although I had ceased writing affiliate articles, my affiliate links were still on my sidebar and suddenly sales trickled in. Now I am not going to give away my niche but keep in mind that people will buy gifts for 60 year old men who like to fish. I had been targeting the wrong people when I started the site. In the end I took over the top four spots on the serp's for my keywords and this drew the attention of several corporate marketing types who had been unable to rank well with their own websites - the very people who produced the products that I outranked them for. Love it when that happens. If you can't beat me then join me and I now run very profitable ads sponsored by the top four corporate entities in the field.
I dropped the affiliate links in order to channel my traffic towards the advertisers - with what they pay I want to make sure that they get their money's worth and this can't be done if your traffic is dispersed by way of too many options. I still keep Adsense on the site and it makes a full time income on it's own. I am still writing huge posts and collecting new keywords to target. The niche is so vast that there is almost no limit to how much search traffic I can generate.
Now, I have brought this up so that those of you who have been blogging aimlessly (I mean that only in terms of not being optimized for anything that people search for) can start optimizing your existing blogs for terms that will draw traffic. It's never too late to do this and if you already have an aged site with a little PR this will be easier than starting over with a new blog.
This is how you create a multi-niche site. I now have 5 of these types of sites - all started out focused on a large general niche and then morphed into numerous side niches, some directly related and some not really related at all.
This blog is one of them. I started a campaign on here to target the term "Payday Loans". This niche is not related to the "make money online" niche and yet I have successfully added it to this blog. At the moment I rank on page 3 for payday loans but more than that I have keyword authority for hundreds of payday loan long tail terms. I am currently getting 40-50 visitors a day for these terms and the adsense CPC for this niche is in the $1.20 - $3.00 range - much higher than the CPC on my "make money" pages. While hard to nail down I estimate an additional Adsense earnings of about $5-$10 a day from this - all from writing 5 articles on the subject. This in spite of the fact that I am not ranking very well for the main keywords yet - but I will and my Adsense earnings will only keep growing.
A Word about Long Tail Keywords
The "make money online" niche has a limited number of long tails. By this I mean there are less than 200 variations of keywords people use to find this site. How many ways can you think of to ask Google to find you sites that help people make money online? In truth only about 15-20 keyword phrases are used in any meaningful amount. I rank on page 1 for almost all of them and traffic amounts to about 800 visitors a day if I combine all the terms used to find my blog. There is some room to grow but not much - it will probably top out at about 1200 or so visitors a day. Now compare this to Payday Loans. I keep track of long tail terms in all my niches. I paste them in notebook and note all the terms that are used more frequently than others - these are the terms I target with optimized backlinks in order to climb the serps. I quit counting the long tails for payday loans when they topped 300 different queries. I don't know how many ways you can ask Google about payday loans but every day I see a few new ones. The term "make money online" had a measly 15,000 searches last month and less than 30,000 searches if all the long tails are combined. See Below.
The Top Searches for "Make Money Online" last Month. (Click to Enlarge)
Compare that to people searching for Payday Loans and related long tails below.
The Top Searches for "Payday Loans" last Month. (Click to Enlarge)
How a Niche Evolves
I came across the Payday Loans niche because I had optimized a few pages for the term "Project Payday". I had chosen this program because it had a lot of searches at the time and I was looking for ways to monetize this blog. Turns out that Google considers the term Payday Loans to be related to "Project Payday" - it isn't but Google ranked my Project Payday pages high on the serp's for people searching for payday loan long tails. I noticed traffic showing up using payday loan queries and morphed my site in that direction - all because of writing posts on a topic that had nothing to do with payday loans other than the word "Payday". This is exactly the same way I came across the un-related niche on my fishing site. Below you will see the top keywords for the term "Project Payday".
Project Payday Search Queries
Another product I had targeted was "Roadmap to Riches" which sent me traffic for various "related terms" like "Make Money" and plain old "Money" - terms I hadn't been targeting with my "make money online" campaign. Both terms get more traffic than "make money online" and I added them to my list of targeted backlinks. I'm 15 in the serp's for "Make Money" and this has added another 18,000 potential visitors to my site. I will be adding more terms like "Business Opportunities" and others in future and this is how I grow a multi-niche site sideways. By continually adding targeted keywords you can build a huge amount of traffic to a blog that started out as a single keyword niche. This works best for blogs that have a general keyword niche like "Fishing" or "Plumbing" or "make money online". It doesn't work well with narrowly defined niches like "Croc Shoes".
Roadmap to Riches Search Queries
How effective is this. Look below and see what my visitors are searching for when they land on this blog.
Searches used to find this blog during the past hour.
This is what the traffic looks like all day long. This isn't you - my readers - this is all organic traffic provided by mostly Google. It keeps coming everyday - whether I post or not and it makes me money.
Monetization Techniques.
Both the Project Payday and Roadmap to Riches posts were written as negative reviews of the products. So how do you make money if you don't have an affiliate link? I'll tell you. If all the pages on page 1 of the serp's are affiliate sites then you can get to page 1 fast by writing an article that doesn't have an affiliate link. I have talked about this before but simply put Google will strive to give the person searching for information the most options available on the topic. A negative review is considered just as important as a positive review - shouldn't people be given both sides of a story?
This is how to rank high - so how do you profit from this? The plan was to force the owners of the programs to pay me off. What? I'm not a saint. I'm on here to make money. By turning people off of buying these products I had hoped the owners would have enough business sense to approach me and make me an offer in order to change my stance and funnel my traffic to them. Keep in mind that I didn't have any readers back then - just search traffic and ethically speaking I couldn't care less if I made money off of search traffic that I didn't know. This is one of the reasons it is hard to make money and have social traffic. I would never screw my readers so I have had to shelve a very profitable revenue stream on this blog - affiliate sales.
So did my plan work? Partly. Project Payday quit trying to sell a worthless ebook full of links for $35.00. Instead they offered their updated system free of charge if people would fill out an offer instead. (This involves IFW's - another subject I won't go into today.) They are paid by the companies making the offers for each person who takes out a trial membership in some product. Project Payday in turn set up a pay per lead program to attract leads. I changed my stance and now I am one of their best lead generators. They pay me $3.00 for every person I send to their site that fills out a free trial. This is a form of Lead Generation and has netted me about $1400 over the past three months. Not bad for writing a couple of articles.
The Roadmap to Riches plan didn't work - the owner of the program was apparently to dense to figure out how to do business online and the program never took off like it could have if he had got my help - oh well. It's all about experimentation. This tactic has worked quite often in my other niches and as unethical as it may seem - it's business and you may as well know some of the tricks of the trade if you are pursuing a career online. Your choice if you want to try this - just showing you some options, after all I'm the kind of person you will be competing with.
Ok I have rambled all over the place in attempting to show you how I find niches. This can't be helped as it isn't just a simple matter of picking a highly searched term and optimizing for it. You have to work in monetization factors right from the start and you have to know if there is room to grow the niche laterally in order to keep expanding. This is the opposite of most niche marketers who focus on a narrow subject and rinse and repeat from one keyword to the next. Both systems work but since Vic and others are showing how to do local niches I thought I might show a different angle to niche marketing. For those of you with sites already established you can try and morph into new terrain without starting over. I recommend both single niche and multi niche blogs as each offers their own unique forms of monetization and you want to spread your revenue streams around as much as possible.
I will be continuing the topic of niches in future posts but next up I want to discuss some of my recent findings in regards to Adsense and Social Traffic. My findings may surprise a few people - it surprised me.
Till then,
Cheers.
Griz
Saturday, February 3, 2007
Make Money with 7 Dollar Secrets
I was unable to resist the urge to buy Jonathan Leger's ebook "$7 Dollar Secrets". I spend more money on coffee on any given day so I thought what the heck. I can't say I expected much for seven bucks and on one hand I wasn't disappointed. On the other hand he provides a clever and invaluable download that is worth far more than 7 dollars. It's 30 pages of mostly fluff about stuff I already new. Must have taken all of 15 minutes to read.
Would I recommend it? Depends. If you have experience in the "make money online" field then you won't get much from this program that you haven't already tried or at least know about (there are a couple of exceptions). If you are a beginner then this is probably an ideal starters project.
In essence the book explains the strategy behind writing and affiliating ebooks. Nothing new here. What was worth the 7 bucks was the down-loadable scripts and PDF info that was included. Having written ebooks myself I know how much work is involved in writing it, setting it all up and then coordinating your landing page, Paypal, download page etc. To my surprise Jonathan provides a much simpler and faster system for doing all this. Idiot proof actually. If you have never produced an ebook but want to then I strongly encourage you to spend the 7 bucks. If you are a beginner then this is the best program I have seen for teaching you how to do it.
The Scripts
He gives you a complete set of pages that set up and install on your site that looks after the entire process involved in selling ebooks online. This is worth far more than 7 dollars my friend. The bonus is that it is already configured for affiliates to use in selling your products. You write an ebook (he provides some links that help you find what topics or niches are popular) and then use the scripts provided to immediately start selling it online. It's fast, easy and even a complete beginner could have an ebook online before the day is out. (assuming they have written one or have resale rights to an existing one)
What you get for 7 Bucks
- 30 pages of text, covering ebook publishing and sales techniques
- provides the software that allows you to write a PDF ebook for free - beginners take note as this is worth a few bucks.
- a complete set of scripts that allow you to sell your ebook online instantly - this is the best value of the package.
- a turnkey setup that allows affiliates to start selling your ebook without the hassle of clickbank.
- provides numerous links for related products (ie. where to get book covers etc.)
- a concise step by step strategy for producing and marketing ebooks.
Note: The scripts can be used for selling other peoples ebooks as well as your own. If you are an affiliate with tons of resale rights ebooks that you have collected but have never done anything with then this program is ideal. I must have a hundred such ebooks that are collecting dust on my hard drive - now I have a fast and simple way to start selling them.
In summation it's hard not to recommend something that only costs 7 dollars. As I said if you are an experienced ebook publisher then this is probably not for you. I would say that the script package will simplify your efforts tremendously though and you might do well to pick them up if nothing else in this is new to you.
For beginners I would encourage you to get this as you will not find a better resource online for producing ebooks.
Cheers,
Griz
Would I recommend it? Depends. If you have experience in the "make money online" field then you won't get much from this program that you haven't already tried or at least know about (there are a couple of exceptions). If you are a beginner then this is probably an ideal starters project.
In essence the book explains the strategy behind writing and affiliating ebooks. Nothing new here. What was worth the 7 bucks was the down-loadable scripts and PDF info that was included. Having written ebooks myself I know how much work is involved in writing it, setting it all up and then coordinating your landing page, Paypal, download page etc. To my surprise Jonathan provides a much simpler and faster system for doing all this. Idiot proof actually. If you have never produced an ebook but want to then I strongly encourage you to spend the 7 bucks. If you are a beginner then this is the best program I have seen for teaching you how to do it.
The Scripts
He gives you a complete set of pages that set up and install on your site that looks after the entire process involved in selling ebooks online. This is worth far more than 7 dollars my friend. The bonus is that it is already configured for affiliates to use in selling your products. You write an ebook (he provides some links that help you find what topics or niches are popular) and then use the scripts provided to immediately start selling it online. It's fast, easy and even a complete beginner could have an ebook online before the day is out. (assuming they have written one or have resale rights to an existing one)
What you get for 7 Bucks
- 30 pages of text, covering ebook publishing and sales techniques
- provides the software that allows you to write a PDF ebook for free - beginners take note as this is worth a few bucks.
- a complete set of scripts that allow you to sell your ebook online instantly - this is the best value of the package.
- a turnkey setup that allows affiliates to start selling your ebook without the hassle of clickbank.
- provides numerous links for related products (ie. where to get book covers etc.)
- a concise step by step strategy for producing and marketing ebooks.
Note: The scripts can be used for selling other peoples ebooks as well as your own. If you are an affiliate with tons of resale rights ebooks that you have collected but have never done anything with then this program is ideal. I must have a hundred such ebooks that are collecting dust on my hard drive - now I have a fast and simple way to start selling them.
In summation it's hard not to recommend something that only costs 7 dollars. As I said if you are an experienced ebook publisher then this is probably not for you. I would say that the script package will simplify your efforts tremendously though and you might do well to pick them up if nothing else in this is new to you.
For beginners I would encourage you to get this as you will not find a better resource online for producing ebooks.
Cheers,
Griz
Thursday, February 1, 2007
Project Payday
So What Exactly is the Project Payday System?
Note: 2009 Update. American users only so if you are interested in this type of work and live elsewhere I suggest you look at CashCrate as the systems are much the same.
The system is about Incentivized Freebie Websites, or IFWs. These sites are not well known but have been growing steadily on the Internet. There are 100s of freebie sites out there and they are multiplying fast with new sites launched daily.
How Exactly Do "Incentivized Freebie Websites" Work?
Most of these sites give away electronics such as iPods and digital products (cameras, game systems, PC's, TVs, etc.) but other things too - designer handbags and clothing accessories for women, golf clubs and accessories for men, gift cards, and best of all, cash.
Most sites work like this;
You sign up at a free give-away site and fill out a "sponsor offer".
This is some form of a trial or other offer from a large company such as AOL, Blockbuster, Columbia House, etc. Some offers are free, with others you have to pay a small shipping and handling or other fee.
To get the freebie you must refer a number of people to the site who do the same thing. Once you have the required number of referrals you will receive their free gift.
This works because the website running the promotion is paid a commission each time they generate a lead for an advertiser.
ie. they might earn $50 each time they refer a new person to AOL even though the user only signed up for a free trial and didn't pay anything at all.
The Method
Get Paid to Complete Offers for Others
This is the quickest and easiest method to make money with IFWs.
You can make $50 in the next hour or two just by following these simple steps.
This method is great because it's very straightforward - you complete sponsor offers for other people who are currently working on earning free gifts at one of the various IFWs, and in return they will pay you for doing so.
At any given time there are 100s of people willing to pay you for completing an offer.
Step-By-Step Instructions
Here's how it works:
Visit one of the various "referral trading" sites (listed in Appendix) to find people who are currently paying for offer completions.
Their posts will indicate which sites they are working on, and how much they are willing to pay for your referral. Simply contact them to confirm the deal.
Once the deal has been confirmed, follow the referral link they will provide you and then complete a sponsor offer.
Receive your payment from them via PayPal. Presto! That's all there is to it!
Why This Works and Why People Are Happy to Pay You
This works because of the numbers involved. Let's look at the free Xbox 360 promotion from FreePay - a popular freebie site at the moment.
In the print at the bottom of FreePay's Free Xbox 360 Offer page, you'll see that it requires you to complete an offer and get 8 referrals.
The free premium Xbox 360 has a retail price of $399.
Even if the user pays 8 people $25 each they have purchased a brand new Xbox 360 for half price. Everyone wins.
This is why people will pay you to complete offers for them? It really does make a lot of sense if you think about it.
Ultimately this is all funded by the large advertisers being promoted by these sites. They pay the people running the IFWs each time someone is referred.
Tips for This Method
Offer Crediting
Many sponsors offer "credit" immediately, but some do not. With some it takes a few days to a week or longer before credit is issued for completing that offer. Credit card offers can take up to a month.
Stick to completing offers that credit instantly.
Trader Ratings
Before completing an offer spend a few minutes checking out the person you are referring for and make sure they aren't a scammer. The trading communities all use feedback and ratings systems, so this is very easy to do.
Scammers don't last long because once they start getting negative feedback no one else will trade with them. Still, always be sure to check a person's feedback or trader rating before doing a "deal" with them.
When you're viewing their posts, next to their name you will see something called a Trade Record. This is the number of successful trades they have done with others. Anyone with a Trade Record of 4-5 or higher should be "safe" to trade with.
Getting Paid
When you're just getting started, you yourself won't have a positive "trader rating" so some people will be hesitant to trust you.
This means that when you first start out you'll have to fulfill your end of the deal and do a sponsor offer first. Once they've seen that you've done it, they will pay you.
Once you have built up a positive trader rating and a good reputation for yourself, you can often get paid first. The rule of thumb is that in a trade, the person with the lower Trade Record "goes first".
Using PayPal
PayPal is by far the preferred method of getting paid, for both you and the people who will be paying you. If you aren't already a PayPal user, you should visit PayPal.com and setup a free personal account.
Completing Offers
Don't worry about sponsor offers that aren't entirely free.
The offers that require you to pay a small shipping and handling or other fee are more valuable to everyone involved, and this means that you'll get paid more for doing them.
You can't go wrong paying $5 shipping on an offer and getting paid $30 in return, especially considering the fact that you'll get paid the $30 weeks before you pay the $5 charge.
Credit Cards
To complete sponsor offers that involve paying a small fee, most people simply use their credit card. If you do not have a credit card you have several other options;
You can use any type of bank debit card (as long as it has a Visa/MC logo on it), you can get a PayPal debit card, or prepaid gift cards available at retail or online stores. Many people use the prepaid cards offered by Simon.com.
Give Feedback
After you've completed an offer with someone you should leave some feedback for that person using the applicable feedback or trader rating system.
Note: At any time you can also post that you are available to do offers for money.
Update: Sept. 2007
This program has turned into one of those rare success stories and has gained a huge online following. As a result the people behind Project Payday have upgraded and updated much of their content and more importantly they no longer require you to purchase the ebook. Instead you can fill out 1 offer on their site and earn your first dollar in the process. To sign up and try it out join here.
Project Payday
Cheers,
Griz
Note: 2009 Update. American users only so if you are interested in this type of work and live elsewhere I suggest you look at CashCrate as the systems are much the same.
The system is about Incentivized Freebie Websites, or IFWs. These sites are not well known but have been growing steadily on the Internet. There are 100s of freebie sites out there and they are multiplying fast with new sites launched daily.
How Exactly Do "Incentivized Freebie Websites" Work?
Most of these sites give away electronics such as iPods and digital products (cameras, game systems, PC's, TVs, etc.) but other things too - designer handbags and clothing accessories for women, golf clubs and accessories for men, gift cards, and best of all, cash.
Most sites work like this;
You sign up at a free give-away site and fill out a "sponsor offer".
This is some form of a trial or other offer from a large company such as AOL, Blockbuster, Columbia House, etc. Some offers are free, with others you have to pay a small shipping and handling or other fee.
To get the freebie you must refer a number of people to the site who do the same thing. Once you have the required number of referrals you will receive their free gift.
This works because the website running the promotion is paid a commission each time they generate a lead for an advertiser.
ie. they might earn $50 each time they refer a new person to AOL even though the user only signed up for a free trial and didn't pay anything at all.
The Method
Get Paid to Complete Offers for Others
This is the quickest and easiest method to make money with IFWs.
You can make $50 in the next hour or two just by following these simple steps.
This method is great because it's very straightforward - you complete sponsor offers for other people who are currently working on earning free gifts at one of the various IFWs, and in return they will pay you for doing so.
At any given time there are 100s of people willing to pay you for completing an offer.
Step-By-Step Instructions
Here's how it works:
Visit one of the various "referral trading" sites (listed in Appendix) to find people who are currently paying for offer completions.
Their posts will indicate which sites they are working on, and how much they are willing to pay for your referral. Simply contact them to confirm the deal.
Once the deal has been confirmed, follow the referral link they will provide you and then complete a sponsor offer.
Receive your payment from them via PayPal. Presto! That's all there is to it!
Why This Works and Why People Are Happy to Pay You
This works because of the numbers involved. Let's look at the free Xbox 360 promotion from FreePay - a popular freebie site at the moment.
In the print at the bottom of FreePay's Free Xbox 360 Offer page, you'll see that it requires you to complete an offer and get 8 referrals.
The free premium Xbox 360 has a retail price of $399.
Even if the user pays 8 people $25 each they have purchased a brand new Xbox 360 for half price. Everyone wins.
This is why people will pay you to complete offers for them? It really does make a lot of sense if you think about it.
Ultimately this is all funded by the large advertisers being promoted by these sites. They pay the people running the IFWs each time someone is referred.
Tips for This Method
Offer Crediting
Many sponsors offer "credit" immediately, but some do not. With some it takes a few days to a week or longer before credit is issued for completing that offer. Credit card offers can take up to a month.
Stick to completing offers that credit instantly.
Trader Ratings
Before completing an offer spend a few minutes checking out the person you are referring for and make sure they aren't a scammer. The trading communities all use feedback and ratings systems, so this is very easy to do.
Scammers don't last long because once they start getting negative feedback no one else will trade with them. Still, always be sure to check a person's feedback or trader rating before doing a "deal" with them.
When you're viewing their posts, next to their name you will see something called a Trade Record. This is the number of successful trades they have done with others. Anyone with a Trade Record of 4-5 or higher should be "safe" to trade with.
Getting Paid
When you're just getting started, you yourself won't have a positive "trader rating" so some people will be hesitant to trust you.
This means that when you first start out you'll have to fulfill your end of the deal and do a sponsor offer first. Once they've seen that you've done it, they will pay you.
Once you have built up a positive trader rating and a good reputation for yourself, you can often get paid first. The rule of thumb is that in a trade, the person with the lower Trade Record "goes first".
Using PayPal
PayPal is by far the preferred method of getting paid, for both you and the people who will be paying you. If you aren't already a PayPal user, you should visit PayPal.com and setup a free personal account.
Completing Offers
Don't worry about sponsor offers that aren't entirely free.
The offers that require you to pay a small shipping and handling or other fee are more valuable to everyone involved, and this means that you'll get paid more for doing them.
You can't go wrong paying $5 shipping on an offer and getting paid $30 in return, especially considering the fact that you'll get paid the $30 weeks before you pay the $5 charge.
Credit Cards
To complete sponsor offers that involve paying a small fee, most people simply use their credit card. If you do not have a credit card you have several other options;
You can use any type of bank debit card (as long as it has a Visa/MC logo on it), you can get a PayPal debit card, or prepaid gift cards available at retail or online stores. Many people use the prepaid cards offered by Simon.com.
Give Feedback
After you've completed an offer with someone you should leave some feedback for that person using the applicable feedback or trader rating system.
Note: At any time you can also post that you are available to do offers for money.
Update: Sept. 2007
This program has turned into one of those rare success stories and has gained a huge online following. As a result the people behind Project Payday have upgraded and updated much of their content and more importantly they no longer require you to purchase the ebook. Instead you can fill out 1 offer on their site and earn your first dollar in the process. To sign up and try it out join here.
Project Payday
Cheers,
Griz
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Make Money - Monthly Review -The Winners
Update 2009 - This post is out of date - Disregard and move on...
I thought this would be a good time to recap the last month's achievements... or lack thereof. If you have been keeping tabs I have ventured into several different money making enterprises and posted articles on several of them. I would like to update you on the progress of these programs and recap my opinions of them. Needless to say but as usual more money left my wallet than I was able to replace but I was sucked into several new schemes that I just had to check out. I don't think us get rich quick "junkies" can resist the temptation to try out every crappy thing that comes along.
It's a Money Maker
In this category I would classify the following;
Free Viral Traffic Generator
This is basically a free upline/downline scheme that gets you traffic. I will grant you that most of the traffic is useless but a small fraction actually convert. In my case I haven't made any money directly from this program but I have a fairly good sized mailing list from it. The site I put on it gives away a free eBook on adsense if they sign up. So far I have almost 700 people on the list - not bad for a month of doing nothing. If I ever figure out something to sell this list will come in handy.
I have rejoined the list several times now with more of my sites. Traffic has slowly started trickling in and this time I'm trying to sell affiliate programs. I'll let you know if it generates any direct sales. I'm hoping it will as it converted sign ups fairly decently.
The Ultimate Super Tip
I love this one. It is turning into my best money maker. Every day I get a paypal message saying I just made another $10, some days as much as $40. This is unbelievable in the sense that I haven't promoted this hard at all. The guy behind this is very clever and it works like a charm. I keep meaning to spend a little time on this but I'm to lazy to work that hard. I am curious as to how much money could be generated with the Ultimate Super Tip, so if anybody can enlighten us - leave a comment.
Project Payday
I have mixed feelings about this program - it works fine but it takes work. I use it every day and make enough money to blow on other get rich projects. Don't get me wrong, the work is not hard by any means it's just too boring for me to spend much time on it. It is nice as a little cash generator when you need it. I can't imagine how much work would be entailed to make a lot of cash from it - I'm sure some people put in the effort and good for them. Not my cup of tea though.
The "freebie" process entails signing up for a web site which offers a product you are interested in, then completing a trial offer (such as AOL, Blockbuster Online, eFax, Columbia House, etc...) and finally referring X amount of people who must also complete an offer (the actual number of people required depends on the desired product).
Why do these companies give away products?
Well, they are paid by affiliate companies each time someone completes an offer. For example, if you sign up for a trial of Blockbuster Online, the company receives a commission for referring you. By requiring you to refer a certain amount of people, they are generating income to cover the cost of the free product.
Let's face it, it's not always easy to find people willing to sign up using your link and then complete an offer. Referral Swapper matches you up with other users who are also trying to complete free product websites. You can trade sign ups with other people to gather the amount of sign ups you need.
For example, you would like to get an iPod from FreeiPods.com. You trade with another user who wants a Sony PSP from FreePSPs.com. So, the other person signs up for FreeiPods.com using your link, and does an offer. You then sign up for FreePSPs.com and complete an offer. Now you each have one referral.
Another option is to pay people to signup with your link. For example, you offer $15 for people to signup on FreeiPods.com, and then pay them once they complete an offer.
Project Payday is really just a set of instructions and links. It tells you what to do and where to go. You can figure it all out on your own by joining one of the forums. The people making money with this are more than happy to explain it to the newbies - they need you as a referral and will not only tell you what to do but they will pay you to do it. Gotta love that. This only applies to you being paid for referrals. The other systems are a bit more complicated - ie. you pay other people for referrals to make even more money than you pay out. If I get ambitious I might explain how in another post.
Note: As of Sept 2007 the Project Payday course is now available for free. You can get it by simply trying out the system and filling out an offer on the Project Payday site and make 1 dollar in the process. I have cautioned against paying for this material in this post and several others but now that you can get the material without paying for it I would recommend you sign up and read it. - Grizzly
Ok that's enough, my fingers are sore so I will return next post with some of the losers I've forked out cash for.
Good Luck
Cheers,
Griz
I thought this would be a good time to recap the last month's achievements... or lack thereof. If you have been keeping tabs I have ventured into several different money making enterprises and posted articles on several of them. I would like to update you on the progress of these programs and recap my opinions of them. Needless to say but as usual more money left my wallet than I was able to replace but I was sucked into several new schemes that I just had to check out. I don't think us get rich quick "junkies" can resist the temptation to try out every crappy thing that comes along.
It's a Money Maker
In this category I would classify the following;
Free Viral Traffic Generator
This is basically a free upline/downline scheme that gets you traffic. I will grant you that most of the traffic is useless but a small fraction actually convert. In my case I haven't made any money directly from this program but I have a fairly good sized mailing list from it. The site I put on it gives away a free eBook on adsense if they sign up. So far I have almost 700 people on the list - not bad for a month of doing nothing. If I ever figure out something to sell this list will come in handy.
I have rejoined the list several times now with more of my sites. Traffic has slowly started trickling in and this time I'm trying to sell affiliate programs. I'll let you know if it generates any direct sales. I'm hoping it will as it converted sign ups fairly decently.
The Ultimate Super Tip
I love this one. It is turning into my best money maker. Every day I get a paypal message saying I just made another $10, some days as much as $40. This is unbelievable in the sense that I haven't promoted this hard at all. The guy behind this is very clever and it works like a charm. I keep meaning to spend a little time on this but I'm to lazy to work that hard. I am curious as to how much money could be generated with the Ultimate Super Tip, so if anybody can enlighten us - leave a comment.
Project Payday
I have mixed feelings about this program - it works fine but it takes work. I use it every day and make enough money to blow on other get rich projects. Don't get me wrong, the work is not hard by any means it's just too boring for me to spend much time on it. It is nice as a little cash generator when you need it. I can't imagine how much work would be entailed to make a lot of cash from it - I'm sure some people put in the effort and good for them. Not my cup of tea though.
The "freebie" process entails signing up for a web site which offers a product you are interested in, then completing a trial offer (such as AOL, Blockbuster Online, eFax, Columbia House, etc...) and finally referring X amount of people who must also complete an offer (the actual number of people required depends on the desired product).
Why do these companies give away products?
Well, they are paid by affiliate companies each time someone completes an offer. For example, if you sign up for a trial of Blockbuster Online, the company receives a commission for referring you. By requiring you to refer a certain amount of people, they are generating income to cover the cost of the free product.
Let's face it, it's not always easy to find people willing to sign up using your link and then complete an offer. Referral Swapper matches you up with other users who are also trying to complete free product websites. You can trade sign ups with other people to gather the amount of sign ups you need.
For example, you would like to get an iPod from FreeiPods.com. You trade with another user who wants a Sony PSP from FreePSPs.com. So, the other person signs up for FreeiPods.com using your link, and does an offer. You then sign up for FreePSPs.com and complete an offer. Now you each have one referral.
Another option is to pay people to signup with your link. For example, you offer $15 for people to signup on FreeiPods.com, and then pay them once they complete an offer.
Project Payday is really just a set of instructions and links. It tells you what to do and where to go. You can figure it all out on your own by joining one of the forums. The people making money with this are more than happy to explain it to the newbies - they need you as a referral and will not only tell you what to do but they will pay you to do it. Gotta love that. This only applies to you being paid for referrals. The other systems are a bit more complicated - ie. you pay other people for referrals to make even more money than you pay out. If I get ambitious I might explain how in another post.
Note: As of Sept 2007 the Project Payday course is now available for free. You can get it by simply trying out the system and filling out an offer on the Project Payday site and make 1 dollar in the process. I have cautioned against paying for this material in this post and several others but now that you can get the material without paying for it I would recommend you sign up and read it. - Grizzly
Ok that's enough, my fingers are sore so I will return next post with some of the losers I've forked out cash for.
Good Luck
Cheers,
Griz
Monday, January 15, 2007
Uncle Sam Cracks Down on Online Scams!
I have posted the following article as a reminder to everyone that there are rules and ethics involved in Internet marketing and that the U.S. government is now cracking down on all the shady operators roaming the net. To protect yourself I advise you to read the following article by Jim Edwards who is one of the foremost internet Gurus out there. If you are concerned about your own legal status online then you would do well to get a copy of Jim's "The Online Marketer's and Website Owner's Legal information Clinic". He includes a link at the end of the article.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Edwards
In a recent move that rocked the online world and left many
Internet marketers shaking in their boots, the Federal
Trade Commission (FTC) initiated a sweeping crackdown on
what they termed "Internet Scammers" and "Deceptive
Spammers."
The FTC, along with state and federal officials, filed 45
criminal and civil law enforcement actions and froze the
corporate and personal assets of some defendants.
According to the FTC, they went after a wide array of
deceptive schemes and illegal scams including auction
fraud, illegal sale of controlled substances, bogus
business opportunities, deceptive money-making scams,
illegal advance-fee credit card offers, and identity theft.
In other words, Uncle Sam gave notice that people can no
longer treat the Internet like the Wild, Wild West!
I welcome this long overdue crackdown on real Internet
evildoers. For years, honest business owners suffered
because Internet scammers caused consumer fear and
reluctance to conduct business online. As the government
cleans up the back alleys of the Internet, consumer
confidence will rise and sales will increase.
However, as with any crusade to bring about law and order,
innocent and honest businesses stand a REAL chance of
getting caught in the crossfire.
Let's face it, if you get named in a lawsuit by the
government - even though you may be innocent - you'll still
lose a lot of time, energy, emotion, and money defending
yourself.
If you operate any business online, or plan to set one up,
the following guidelines should help you avoid problems.
** Always Tell The Truth **
Actually, this basic lesson from your Mom ranks the best
way to avoid all kinds of trouble! "The truth shall set you
free" ranks just as appropriate in the online world as in
the offline world.
In fact, in the light of recent events, the truth might
actually keep you out of jail!
** Avoid Outrageous Claims **
Don't make outrageous claims you can't substantiate. A big
difference exists between good copywriting (salesmanship in
print) and making claims that no sane person, or at least
the average person, could ever achieve.
It's one thing to tell people you can show them "how to get
thousands of hits to their website." It's quite another to
say you will "show them how to get 10,000 hits to their
website by tomorrow and make $15,000 this weekend."
** Get The Correct Legal Documents **
Every website should maintain certain legal documents in
order to operate within the guidelines set forth by the
FTC. As with any law, ignorance of the law does not excuse
disobeying the rules!
You must know whether your business needs a disclaimer,
terms of service, privacy notice and other legal documents.
And, by the way, the time to find out you should have
posted them on your site is NOT after you've been served
with legal papers by the government!
** Turn the Tables **
Look at what your business promises and actually delivers
from the standpoint of a consumer.
Would you feel happy or sad once you did business with
yourself?
Would you feel like you got your money's worth, or would
you feel like you'd been held up at gunpoint in the middle
of the night in the mini-mart parking lot?
Your gut answer to that question will go a long way toward
keeping you out of trouble with the government.
Sort of funny how the "Golden Rule" of "do unto others as
you would have them do unto you" keeps cropping up in life
as a way to consistently avoid trouble and heartache.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Edwards
In a recent move that rocked the online world and left many
Internet marketers shaking in their boots, the Federal
Trade Commission (FTC) initiated a sweeping crackdown on
what they termed "Internet Scammers" and "Deceptive
Spammers."
The FTC, along with state and federal officials, filed 45
criminal and civil law enforcement actions and froze the
corporate and personal assets of some defendants.
According to the FTC, they went after a wide array of
deceptive schemes and illegal scams including auction
fraud, illegal sale of controlled substances, bogus
business opportunities, deceptive money-making scams,
illegal advance-fee credit card offers, and identity theft.
In other words, Uncle Sam gave notice that people can no
longer treat the Internet like the Wild, Wild West!
I welcome this long overdue crackdown on real Internet
evildoers. For years, honest business owners suffered
because Internet scammers caused consumer fear and
reluctance to conduct business online. As the government
cleans up the back alleys of the Internet, consumer
confidence will rise and sales will increase.
However, as with any crusade to bring about law and order,
innocent and honest businesses stand a REAL chance of
getting caught in the crossfire.
Let's face it, if you get named in a lawsuit by the
government - even though you may be innocent - you'll still
lose a lot of time, energy, emotion, and money defending
yourself.
If you operate any business online, or plan to set one up,
the following guidelines should help you avoid problems.
** Always Tell The Truth **
Actually, this basic lesson from your Mom ranks the best
way to avoid all kinds of trouble! "The truth shall set you
free" ranks just as appropriate in the online world as in
the offline world.
In fact, in the light of recent events, the truth might
actually keep you out of jail!
** Avoid Outrageous Claims **
Don't make outrageous claims you can't substantiate. A big
difference exists between good copywriting (salesmanship in
print) and making claims that no sane person, or at least
the average person, could ever achieve.
It's one thing to tell people you can show them "how to get
thousands of hits to their website." It's quite another to
say you will "show them how to get 10,000 hits to their
website by tomorrow and make $15,000 this weekend."
** Get The Correct Legal Documents **
Every website should maintain certain legal documents in
order to operate within the guidelines set forth by the
FTC. As with any law, ignorance of the law does not excuse
disobeying the rules!
You must know whether your business needs a disclaimer,
terms of service, privacy notice and other legal documents.
And, by the way, the time to find out you should have
posted them on your site is NOT after you've been served
with legal papers by the government!
** Turn the Tables **
Look at what your business promises and actually delivers
from the standpoint of a consumer.
Would you feel happy or sad once you did business with
yourself?
Would you feel like you got your money's worth, or would
you feel like you'd been held up at gunpoint in the middle
of the night in the mini-mart parking lot?
Your gut answer to that question will go a long way toward
keeping you out of trouble with the government.
Sort of funny how the "Golden Rule" of "do unto others as
you would have them do unto you" keeps cropping up in life
as a way to consistently avoid trouble and heartache.
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