Making money on the web

Superb Gridiron Platform

2011-07-10T22:05:00.000-07:00

I have been looking for web hosting site for my other blogs for a while. Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) sounds great, but could be too expensive. I want a web hosting that is not expensive, but also can handle sudden surge in demand.

Then, I come across Superb Gridiron Platform. The package that caught my eyes is the GridMax package. It charges only $14.99 per month for unlimited data storage and traffic. This sounds like a deal that I am looking for.

I got to give this web hosting service a try!

Scrubs for women

2011-07-10T21:51:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, I have a blog about Blue sky scrubs. I check the site again, and it looks like it has been updated. The site now has a lot of cheap nursing scrubs

You can check their catalog in this link:
http://www.blueskyscrubs.com/categories/Scrubs/Scrubs-for-Women/Original-Scrubs/

This nursing scrubs surely look sexy!

SEO Consultancy

2011-07-10T21:38:00.000-07:00

One main challenge for people to make money online is that the online world is constantly changing. Google is consistently fine tuning its algorithm. The SEO trick that works very well this month will not work the next month. New trends keeps emerging and will change the game completely in a very short time.

Wouldn't it be nice if you can have someone to do the Search Engine Optimization for you? Today, I come across a SEO consultancy site. The web site said it is using white hat SEO technique that utilize new social media site to promote your site.

It will be nice to have an expert to do SEO for you. I will definitely give this site a try.

Scrubs

2011-04-19T21:02:00.000-07:00

My mother-in-law went to hospital for an operation recently. This made me have to go to hospital at least twice a week recently. Every morning, I go to the coffee shop in the hospital's cafeteria, buy my coffee, and then visited my mother-in-law. This has become part of my morning ritual recently.

To my surprise, there are a lot of young and attractive women in the hospital's cafeteria. Most of them are not nurse, but doctor's trainee. I guess nowadays there are more female doctors than male doctors! For the first time, I found scrubs can be fashion too. It can make you look hot and sexy!

It turns out that there is scrubs store on the web. Its name is called, Blue Skys Scrubs. It sells all sorts of scrubs
like nursing scrubs, medical scrubs or surgical scrubs. Indeed, it even have scrubs for men too!

Advertising Agency

2011-04-18T22:04:00.000-07:00

Back in the late 90s when the internet just start to catch up, many people still debate whether a web site can depend on advertising as its main source of income. Back then, many web sites are subscription based, and many people think a web site that generates its income through advertising only does not have a sustainable business model.

Nowadays, advertising is the main source of income for most internet companies. Google builds its billions dollars empire depends solely on advertising income. Advertising on Internet has grown so much that it is threatening traditional media, such as newspaper.

With this new normal, it is important for business to hire an advertising agency that focus on advertising on Internet. Today, I come across a site called, "That! Leading advertising agency" is one of such agency. That! is an advertising agency that combine the old and new advertising media to create an effective advertising campaign. That! Leading advertising agency is mainly focused on the Internet, but it combines with traditional media such as, television, radio, prints and newspapers to help its clients to create a successful advertising campaign.

That! Leading advertising agency has build a team of highly skilled advertising specialist that focus on numerous different industries. That! Leading advertising agency also has its proprietary software to track the result of its client advertising campaign. By getting the result instantaneously, That! Leading advertising agency can adjusted its strategy very easily. If a campaign does not, That! Leading advertising agency will reassess its strategy based on live feedback.

Popup Displays

2011-04-15T22:04:00.000-07:00

Donald Trump is the second leading candidate in the GOP party now! He even plans to announce his candidancy in his reality TV show, "The Apprentice".

Beside all the boardroom dramas, and office politics, one thing I like about "The Apprentice" is to watch how the participant set up trade show to compete with each other. A trade show is an important event for selling products. A trade show popup is an effective way to sell new business/product.

The pop up displays uses in trade show are so important that it has an entire industry supporting it. Pop up trade show displays are easy to set up and transport. The frame opens up like an accordion, and you can then hang either fabric or graphic panels to the frame. Also, the case can convert to a podium stand by using either a graphic or fabric wrap to surround the case. A plastic or wood top is added to finish off the podium.

Custom pop ups are available with internal shelving, back lighting, different shapes, monitors, dye cut graphics and more.

Backlight pop ups are like a giant light box. Special panels and lights are hung behind the display and a large transparency graphic is hung on the front.

Table top pop ups are available for budget conscious end users and are built in miniature.

Bubble kits allow back lit graphics to extend in front of the wall to give a different look.

3D pop up displays offer a unique way of displaying graphics and are the easiest to set up.

Visit a trade show and you will see tons of pop up booths being used in the various forms. The most unique ones exhibit custom designed graphics for higher impact and better results. Picture pop ups at a trade show sort of like a billboard along a freeway. It only has a fraction of an instant to attract attention

Blog-Roll

2008-02-09T17:37:00.001-08:00

Here is a list of liked minded blogs. If you are interested in adding your blog to my blog roll, please add a link to this blog to your blog and leave a comment on this post:

Liked Minded Blogs:

Friend's Blogs:

Christy's Coffee Break

Here's Johnny!

2008-02-08T19:49:00.000-08:00

Johnny Cash is back!

I have been absent for almost half a year. Lots of things has changed over the past half year.

Some changes that I have been noticed:

John Chow got penalized by Google. First, his blog is no longer ranked in the top 100 when you search for "John Chow" on the web.
Many sites got penalized in the recent Google page rank. For example, John Chow's site now has a page rank of 4, just like this blog. He had page rank 6 by last June.
Kumiko sold her site for over $10K.
Matt Jones in Successful Online Money Making creates two blogs and sold them.

My blog is not in shape. I will update the template over the next couple days. First of all, I will change the "Liked Minded Blog" section since several links are out of date. Secondly, I have to rejoin MyBlogLog since I need a Yahoo account to access MyBlogLog now.

More to come soon!

Blogging is another Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG)

2007-06-05T18:42:00.000-07:00

When I first started blogging about 5 months ago, I thought blogging is like writing a diary. But after five months of blogging, I found out blogging is more similar to my other passion in life -- Massive MultiPlayer Online Role Playing Game. (MMORPG)

Here is the reasons why:

1. You build yourself up SLOWLY by performing many repetitive tasks
Whether you are playing World of Warcraft, EverQuest, or Ultima Online, you spend lots of time performing repetitive tasks to build up your strength, money and experience points. In blogging, you spend lots of times performing repetitive tasks like commenting, submitting sites to directory, answering emails, and writing posts to build up your blog over time. Other than a few popular blogs, most of us have to build up our readerships and backlinks SLOWLY over months of time.

2. You always wonder if those A-List players are cheating
When I am playing Runescape, a free online MMORPG, I always wonder how those people can get to level 99. How many hours did they spend playing? It is impossible! They must be using some kinds of illegal bots! They must be cheating!

At the same time, when I am surfing John Chow dot com and seeing people leaving 100+ comments in there, it just make me wonder, do those top commentators have nothing else better to do in their life?

3. There are lots of tips online, but most of the tips are coming from the same source
For any MMORPG, you can find lots of tips online, but most of the tips are coming from the same source. People just build a site and rewritting the tips using his own words and claim it as his own.

For blogging, I can find lots of blogging tips online, but most of them are rephrasing words from popular sites like Problogger's blogging tips. On one occasion, a blogger even has the guts to copy the entire "Seth Godin's 56 tips to get traffic for your blog" and asks me to link to his post.

By the way, Seth Godin's post is a good read, and I recommend it to any bloggers, whether you are a newbie or a A-list blogger.

4. You need to build online relationship to succeed
Whether you want to be a successful gamer or a successful blogger, you need to network with other players (bloggers). It is impossible to succeed in a virtual world or blogosphere alone. You cannot succeed offline without building links and you cannot succeed online without networking either.

Enjoy the World of Blogs!

How to leave comments like Paris Hilton without looking like an idiot

2007-06-04T17:08:00.000-07:00

That's Hot!

All over the Internet today, you can find news about Paris Hilton checking herself early to jail. She is swapping her designer dress for a jumpsuit! The photo on the left is a fake, but I am sure you can see some real photo of her prison life leaking to the Internet very soon.

Seizing the opportunity, E! Online was showing "Paris most shocking moments" on last weekend. The show covers all the funny Paris Hilton's moment over the years. Having nothing better to do, I was watching the show over the weekend. There was one story that caught my attention.

It said that back in 2004, the media found Paris keeps repeating the term, "That's Hot!" over and over again to whatever questions journalists or paparazzi ask her. No one knows she was doing it intentionally until one day; the media found out she is trying to trademark the term, "That's Hot!"

Like most of Paris's stupid plans, this one fails. No one can trademark two simple English words. However, this leads me wondering, is it possible to create a lot of links with the same anchor text to my blog?

Of course, if you have John Chow's influences, or if you have a high page rank's blog, you can ask people to review your site for a free link on your blog, and make the reviewer use your selected anchor text to link to your site. Or if you are willing to join PayPerPost as an advertiser, you can pay bloggers to link to you using your anchor text too.

Most bloggers don't have a PR6+ blog, and most of us aren't going to invest a lot of money to build links. Are there any other alternatives?

One possibility is that you can leave comments on "Do-follow" blogs using your favorite anchor text to link to your site. Hence, if Paris Hilton is a blogger, she will use "That's Hot!" to link to her blog whenever possible. However, this strategy is not only rude, but the hosting blog may not publish your comment. A "Do-follow" blog does not mean the blog owner has to publish everything. It also makes you look stupid too (Just like Paris).

Another strategy is to change your name to your favorite anchor text for comment. For example, if I am targeting "Make money online", I will use "Make money online" as my name instead of "Johnny Cash" when I leave a comment. If "Make money online" is part of my blog title or subtitle, this will even make more sense. By applying this technique, not only you will get an inbound link for you comments, but you will also get a link to your blog using your favorite text.

I am looking at Review Batch 78 at John Chow dot com. One of the blog is listed as "Some Chick's blog". If you click the link, you will find out this is not the name of the blog, but I am sure it got lots of traffic because of the anchor text she chooses. This shows you the power of using the right anchor text.

PayPerPost Love

2007-06-02T19:50:00.000-07:00

*** This is a sponsored post***

I have signed up for PayPerPost for only two weeks, and have done only one sponsored post, but I already love the service! PayPerPost is not the only company that let you get paid for putting ads on blogs. I like PayPerPost because of the following reasons:

1. Lots of choices
Most of the time whenever I check PayPerPost for qualified opportunities, there are usually at least 5 opportunities available. Yeah, I turn down a hundred dollars worth of opportunities every week, and you can brag about it in your blog if you signed up to PayPerPost.

2. Opportunities to all levels of bloggers
PayPerPost do not shut its door to smaller publishers. In fact, there are many opportunities available for blogs of low page rank. The rate is competitive to most other paid posting services that targeted for small publishers. At the same time, you can find advertisers who are willing to pay $300 a post in a page rank 6 blog in PayPerPost too. That means as your blog improves in page rank, you can find better and better assignments in PayPerPost.

3. Quality advertisers
Last week, I was very surprised to find out that one of the PayPerPost's advertiser is a major movie studio. Before I signed up for PayPerPost, I thought most of the customers would be some upstart new web sites who are trying to build traffic. This is entirely untrue. There are many decent sized companies who are using PayPerPost to find quality publishers.

I am a big Transformer fan, and I really wish Steven Spielberg's Dreamwork would use PayPerPost to find bloggers to advertise its film. If that happens, I can get paid to write something I love!

Week 3 Earning Report

2007-05-31T16:50:00.000-07:00

This is my third earning report. This is what I have earned so far:

Google Adsense -- $19.60 (+$1.23)
Blogvertise -- $17.50
Auction Ads -- $ 5.00
MyLot -- $ 0.61 (+0.10)
Selling books on Amazon -- $23.76
CafePress Affiliate -- $6.57 (+$1.65)

PayPerPost -- $6.01 (+6.01)
--------------------------------

Total $ 79.05 (+$8.99)

Alexa's ranking: 275,500 (-17,261)

Technorati rank: 110,158 (-16,491)

I have put more focus on building links than paid posting, and this reflects on my earning report.
Both my Alexa and Technorati ranking has improved a lot.

I will do more PayPerPost this week.

Things to do this week:
1. Add more affiliate links to the blog. (Tasks in my last report)
2. Try Blogitive
3. Add my blog to more directories.

Relate Post: Week 2 Earning Report.

Make Money Online with Kontera

2007-05-30T20:21:00.000-07:00

You probably have already noticed that there are some double underlined words in my blog, and when you mouseover the text, a cute little ad boxes will popup with a nice little advertisements inside it. Yes, my blog has been approved by Kontera.

Kontera is an in-text advertising solution that shows ad based on the keywords in your blog. According to Kontera, your blog needs at least 250,000 page impressions per month to qualify. However, Kontera seems to have relaxed this rule recently for smaller publishers who has rich contents on its blog.

Here is my first impression on Kontera:

The ad box is really neat and cute. If I havn't heard about Kontera before, I may not realize they are ads.

Kontera ad box does not take up any real estate on my blog.

It is nice that you can have both adsense and Kontera together on the same page.

Very easy to install, and it does not slow down the page loading speed.

I have read several blogs talking about its experience with Kontera. Most reviews are positive, and a few of them saying that it didn't make much money. You can check my Kontera's earning in the upcoming earning reports.

Update: Bloggerwave's Paypal problem seems to be fixed

2007-05-29T20:06:00.000-07:00

I signed up to Bloggerwave about a week ago, and was approved within a day. Bloggerwave is another paid to blog program very similar to PayPerPost.

Recently, there is some talk circulating around the blogosphere that Paypal has reversed several payments from Bloggerwave. Someone has even submitted the story to Digg.com

Top 10 Tech Marketing tips has detailed how Paypal reversed its payment from Bloggerwave in this post.

However, on May 27, the owner of Top 10 Tech Marketing tips posts, "I had verified with PayPal’s resolution center that Bloggerwave’s account was now safely in good standing. Furthermore, PayPal no longer feels that Bloggerwave’s account was utilized in a fraudulent manner".

It seems like things are fine now. I am glad to have another alternative for paid posting.

Improve your blog in one minute!

2007-05-28T17:38:00.001-07:00

Like many bloggers, I like to check my stat A LOT! Althought this took me only a minute, this will not help me to improve the quality of my blog.

There is a lot of things you can do in one minute to improve your blog:

Leave a comment on a Do-Follow blog
Submit your blog to a web directory
Submit your blog to a blog directory
Start a discussion in a forum where you can include a link to your blog
Reply a comment
Submit a post to a blog carnival
Thanks someone for joinning your myBlogLog community
Write down any idea that you want to blog
Download a free template to try it on your blog
Try out different colors on your template
Visit a blog in your category

Don't waste your time. Every minute is important!

What is the hex code of Kumiko pink?

2007-05-27T15:44:00.000-07:00

AdesBlog is a personal blog of Abdylas Tynyshov (Ades), who is said to be the first full time blogger in Krgyz Republic. The blog has a page rank of 7. It is currently offering a free PR7 link for a review of its color picker software, AdesClrPicker. A free PR7 link is difficult for me to resist. So, I decide to review AdeClrPicker.

To try out the software, I decide to use AdeClrPicker to find out the hex code of Komiko pink.

Yeah, I know, you can find it out easily by looking at the HTML code, but why waste your time when there is a software that can do the job?

For step 1, I install the software, you can download the trial version in here. It is pretty easy to install. The only warning I got is that Windows doesn't know the publisher of the software. I just ignore the warning, and continue with the install

For step 2, I run the program. A small icon is shown in the system tray, which indicates that the program is running. A small popup telling me that I should use ctrl-alt-a to activate the tool. I then go to Kumiko's cash quest, put the cursor over one of the pink region and hit ctrl-alt-a.

That's what I got.

The RGB code is 255,111,207 which translates to #FF6FCF.

There is no step 3, and I didn't even need to look at the user manual to use it.

Now, I will uninstall the software. I go to the Control Panel->Add or Remove Program. Select AdeClrPicker demo, and click remove. The program will then be uninstalled.

Simple and easy. Do you think so?

Week 2 Earning Report

2007-05-24T18:02:00.000-07:00

This is my second earning report. This is what I have earned so far:

Google Adsense -- $18.37 (+$1.61)
Blogvertise -- $17.50 (+$7.5)
Auction Ads -- $ 5.00
MyLot -- $ 0.51 (+0.04)
Selling books on Amazon -- $23.76
CafePress Affiliate -- $4.92 (+$4.92)
--------------------------------

Total $ 70.06 (+$14.07)

Alexa's ranking: 292,761 (-4099)

Technorati rank: 126,649 (-1182)

A decent week. The pleasant surprise this week is CafePress, which hasn't brought me any income before.

I earn only $0.04 from myLot this week, but myLot has brought me some traffic, and some new readers.

A surprise hit this week is: Earn up to $100 by praticipate in Google User Experience Research.
This short post has brought me many new readers.

PayPerPost has just approved my account. You should see my first PayPerPost review soon.

Things to do this week:
1. Add more affiliate links to the blog. (e.g. TextLinkAds, PayPerPost)
2. Join Kontera
3. Add Google search and other Google affiliate links to the template

Relate Post:First weekly report

Update: Dormcheck is officially off my list

2007-05-23T20:37:00.000-07:00

I try to log into my Dormcheck account today, and I've found out the entire forum layout has changed. Furthermore, my account has been removed. I search all of my old emails, and I have found no warning.

I havn't posted anything on Dormcheck. Hence, I didn't lose anything. I did a search on Google and found JCM of The 15000 dollar mission has some bad experience about Dormcheck.

From his post:

"The dormcheck scammers have redone their forum, and older members have lost their log ins and earnings. (I myself had earned $20 in referrals there) My advice, stay away from Dormcheck."

This is enough information for me to remove Dormcheck from Making Money on the web's list of money making programs.

Increase your Alexa's ranking by Alexa's redirect URL!

2007-05-22T20:33:00.000-07:00

I think Maki Dosh is probably the first blogger who mention about the possibility of using Alexa's redirect URL to increase Alexa's ranking in 20 Quick Ways to increase your Alexa rank. Later, Matt Jones of Succesful Online Money Making expanded the idea and comed up with his Ultimate Alexa Redirect Experiment. In one part of Matt's experiment, he replaces his myBlogLog's community URL with the Alexa's redirect URL. This idea has been widely copied. Many myBlogLog's members, including myself, has replaced its community URL with Alexa's redirect URL.

Ever since then, many variations of the trick have been developed. One blog suggests bloggers to use Alexa's redirect URL for comments. This could increase your Alexa's ranking, but you should be awared of two issues. First, if you try to increase your page rank by commenting on "Do Follow" blogs, you will waste your effort. Second, some blogs award its frequent commentators with a top commentator's section. If you are using redirect URL, you will miss a chance to earn a valuable inbound link.

One blog suggests bloggers to use Alexa's redirect URL in directory sites, like DMOZ. DMOZ is a PR8 site. For me, giving up a valuable PR 8 link to increase Alexa's rank is simply not worth it.

Furthermore, if you have adsense on your blog, and 90% of your traffics are redirected from Alexa, will it raise a few eyebrows on Google? I don't know the answer, but it will be interested to know.

For people who are interested to use Alexa's redirect URL in myBlogLog. Here is the step:
1. Click "Edit Settings" in your myBlogLog's community.
2. Replace the Site URL with the redirect URL. For example:
my URL is: http://makemoneyonblog.blogspot.com
change it to
redirect URL: http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect?http://makemoneyonblog.blogspot.com

By the way, in Matt's experiment, Geoffrey from Alexa leave a comment sayng that using Alexa's redirect URL will have no effect on your Alexa's ranking. But like everyone else, I still use Alexa's redirect URL in my myBlogLog's community.

Earn up to $100 by participate in Google User Experience Research

2007-05-21T19:17:00.000-07:00

According to Blogger Buzz, Google is looking for users to participate in usability research on Blogger. The FAQ says that Google "typically pay $75 for each hour that you spend with a Google researcher, either in person or on the phone". It also said that you don't have to live in the Bay Area to participate.

You can sign up from this link: https://services.google.com/inquiry/user_study

5 things you want to do before you publish your sponsored post

2007-05-20T13:30:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: This is not legal advice.

As blogs becomes an increasingly important media, there is more and more sites devoted to pay bloggers to review an advertiser's site for a fee. Before you publish your first sponsored posts, you may want to consider doing this five things first:

1. Clearly mark your post as sponsored post.

If you got paid for your post, you should always let your readers know. It is not only ethical to do so. According to Directory Aviva, the Federal Trade Commission has published a recommendation for this.

From "12 Laws every blogger should know" of Directory Aviva:

"The Federal Trade Commission published a recommendation that companies who promote their product through word-of-mouth marketing must disclose these relationships. The recommendation applies explicitly to blogging, meaning that bloggers must disclose the fact that they are being paid to promote or review a product whenever that is the case."

2. Get your disclosure policy

Any blogger can get his/her own disclosure policy from DisclosurePolicy.org. I am not a legal expert, and I don't know if having such a disclosure policy will help you in court. However, I think having a disclosure policy will at least show your readers that you are not intended to hide anything from them.

3. Carefully proofread your post

You should proofread any blog's post before publishing it. For sponsored post, you should be extra careful about the wording on your site. If you got the information from your sponsored site, you may want to state that you got it from their web site, such that the readers won't think
your information are based on your own experience.

4. Check the site you review

If you are writing a review for a site, you should always check your reviewed sited. Be alert on any unusal behavior in your browser because it may indicate that your reviewed site has some suspicious scripts. Clear your browser cache before entering the site. Check if you got any suspicious files in your browser cache after. This will give you some idea on what the site installs on your browser. If you have a good antivirus or spybot cleaning software, consider using the software before and after visiting your reviewed site.

5. Don't do evil

If the site you are paid to review is a clear scam, it is better for you to consider other offers.

Or you can do what John Chow did to Seven Days System for Making money online. I couldn't stop laughing after reading his review.

Disclosure Policy

2007-05-19T21:52:00.000-07:00

This policy is valid from January 8, 2007.

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me.

This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation. The compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post may not always be identified as paid or sponsored content.

The owner(s) of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

To get your own policy, go to http://www.disclosurepolicy.org

Free $5 bonus at Auction Ads

2007-05-18T16:08:00.000-07:00

Auction Ads is now offering $5 bonus for TextLinkAds users who sign up this week. TextLinkAds is part owner of AuctionAds .

AuctionAds is a cost per action (CPA) program that displays eBay ad on your site. That means you will get paid if your visitors click your ads and perform some actions on eBay. Currently, you will only get paid if the visitor win an auction, buy it now or registered as a new user.

I have just added AuctionAds to this blog.

For detail of this deal, you can check here.

First Weekly Report

2007-05-17T19:56:00.001-07:00

Starting from this week, I will post my weekly earning report every Thursday.

This is what I have earned so far:

Google Adsense -- $16.76
Blogvertise -- $10.00
Auction Ads -- $ 5.00
MyLot -- $ 0.47
Selling books on Amazon -- $23.76
-----------
Total $ 55.99

Alexa's ranking: 296,860
Technorati rank: 127,831

Things to Do this week:
1. Add Adsense in the middle column
2. Improve loading speed of the page. The mid column seems to take a long time to load.
3. Add AuctionAds to this page.