My PPC Advertising dot Info

Free website hosting with a twist - 110mb.com

noreply@blogger.com (Tiberius Burciu) — Thu, 15 May 2008 18:38:00 +0000

Well, I usually don't review each and every free hosting company that I see or use on the Internet. Some of you might ask me why not? The answer is simple: there are too many companies that are offering free hosting and it would be way too much time invested in researching, testing or rating such services. And to be honest with you, I don't have the time to do it, no matter how much I'd try it. Plus, this blog isn't about reviewing and rating webhosting companies. So, you can say that this is not my niche.

Yeah, it's true that I wrote a review about a cheap hosting company and about GoDaddy.com few months ago and that I currently promoting one free service like those mentioned above ( see the second 125x125 banner located in the "Sponsors" section of this blog, on the sidebar ), but this doesn't mean I'm trying to do a "Top 10 best free hosting companies" top or something like that..I've reviewed/I'm promoting this services because I found/find them to be useful for my readers and visitors..and that's all.

"So, if you're not looking to make that top 10 you've told me about, why did you wrote this post, anyway?" Because I'd like to present you one free hosting company which I currently use for my niche website and which I find it to be a good and quite reliable place for you to host a site or blog ( if you're planning to start one and don't have much cash to spend them on monthly hosting fees ). So, with no further ado, let me tell you a few things about 110mb.com ( this is the name of the service I'll be talking about today )..

You might wanna now why this is different from the rest of the companies that are offering similar services? Here's why: when you sign up for a certain free hosting company and you're building your site/blog, they won't going to ask you money for this ( obviously ). But the thing is that the respective company still has to generate some revenue, so it can continue to survive in the market ( how else can it pay for its electricity bills, servers maintenance and so on? ). So, one way to make some cash for them is to place ads on your site or blog ( usually, Google Adsense ads ). Now, every time one of your visitors will click those ads, will bring the hosting company some dollars. The more sites are hosted on their servers and the more visitors those sites manage to attract, the more money they'll make.

The problem is that free hosted sites are not trusted by many people ( they are on a subdomain, such as mysite.subdomain.com, they look unprofessional most of the time and are filled with ads..the webhosting company's ads and probably yours, too ). So, you might not be getting to much traffic to them. But what if there was a company which offers you free hosting, the possibility to host your own domain name ( like mysite.com ), wouldn't place forced ads on your site and also give you the opportunity to get even more features, by paying some small one-time fees for them? Wouldn't this be nice? Yep it would be..and this company is 110mb.com.

I've been talking about features..but which are they, more exactly? What has this company to offer you, a webmaster/blogger-to-be? Let's take a look at the list below:

1. Disk space: 5 GB

2. Monthly bandwidth: 300 GB

3. Max file size upload limit: 8 MB

4. 99.8% uptime guaranteed

5. Own domain ( 1 ) allowed

6. PHP 4 & 5

7. FTP with Chmod

8. 600+ file types supported

9. Online file manager

10. Site builder/Visual editor

..and lots more ( you can see the complete list of features here, including those you'll get if you choose to upgrade your hosting plan ).

I must say that not many ads-free hosting companies are offering you so many features. Some might include more of them, while others might have limited access to their full set of features. What else you should know about 110mb.com? Well, registration is fast, easy and free, the control panel is easy to browse and navigate through and if you have some knowledge of working with HTML codes and uploading files on servers, you can actually build quite a good site. Should you decide to continue hosting it at 110mb, it's your choice. I can't come and tell you "You know what, host it here because this is the best hosting service in the world!!" I mean, everybody has his own preferences.

But from my own experience, I can tell you that you can give it a try. At least, until you manage to learn your way around building and maintaining websites/blogs, after which you can move them to a paid host. So, what do you say? Wanna give it a shot? If yes, then just click here and sign up for free! Good luck! PS: Once you've managed to build your first site or blog, let me know about it and I'll come and visit it :)

Free text ads and multiple advertising options at CrocAds.com

noreply@blogger.com (Tiberius Burciu) — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:41:00 +0000

You probably know that I'm one blogger who likes to talk about driving traffic to a site or blog and promoting it through various methods, especially free ones. You're now asking yourself "Why?". The answer is pretty simple: when I've first started blogging, almost an year ago ( geesh, time flies so fast! ), I had absolutely no advertising budget. Yeah, believe it or not, I'm not one of those guys who had hundreds or even thousands of dollars to splash'em on blog promotion, right from the very beginning ( and I'm talking about guys like Darren, from ProBlogger, for example, who's one of the most successful blog owners I know ). So, because of this, I had to direct my attention to other advertising options ( or platforms, or websites, you name them however you like..it's the same thing ), which were either low-cost or free.

And that's how I've first discovered LinkReferral, to give just one example. If you don't know what this is, let me tell you in a couple of words: it's an advertising directory, where you sign up for free, add your site and start receiving traffic and reviews from the other members of LR ( LinkReferral ). The more visited your site/blog is and the more feedback it gets from others, the more it can climb to better position ( you can even get to the first one of the category where you've listed your website or blog, therefore receiving more free traffic ).

Because I found this directory to be the best place to start with, I too have signed up, long time ago. No to mention that a few months ago, I've decided to upgrade my membership, so I can benefit from more features ( which weren't available to free members ). As the time went by, I managed to find even more low-cost or free advertising services, which have been more or less useful. I've tested most of them, but I only continued to use those which brought in some satisfactory results ( like the above mentioned LinkReferral..or more recently, EntreCard and Croc-Ads ).

"Hold one a second there..I know about EntreCard, but what in the world is Croc-Ads?! Never heard of this site before.." Probably you haven't heard about CA, so this is why I wrote this post, to tell you more about it. I know it sounds a bit funny, but it is in fact a serious advertising platform..and it is free to join, too! So, what does it offers to its members?

If you want a simple answer, a lot. On the other hand, a more detailed answer would be: free AdWords-like text ads, e-mail signature ads, ezine ads, top sponsors ads, solo ads, banner image ads and a few more interesting features and options you can take advantage of, if you choose to sign up. And why wouldn't you want to do so? It's free anyway, and you have nothing to loose.

I was talking about those text ads..What are they exactly? They are ads just like those you ( or anyone else ) would normally pay big bucks for, if you/they were to advertise your/their sites or blogs via Google. They only difference is that by advertising via CrocAds.com ads, you won't going to pay a dime. Just like the site itself, these are free to use, too ( and so are most of the services offered by CA ). And because there are no real money involved here, to pay for your ads, you use credits. The more you have, the more exposure your own ads will get. How to obtain this credits:

1. Refer other bloggers/webmasters to CrocAds;
2. Use the surf function, to visit other sites and receive a bunch of credits ( and "bunch" here really means "a bunch", not a mere 0.000001/visit );
Or 3. Buy them ( you can pay for credits via credit card, AlertPay or EGold..I didn't saw PayPal listed as a payment method there, though...).

Once you think you have enough credits to start an advertising campaign, just go to the "Promo Tools" tab, located in the upper horizontal menu of your CA account and select the "Manage text ads" option. After you select that option and get to the wanted page, create an ad first and then set a number of credits for it, so it can become active. The activation is made instantly, after credits are added ( so, your ad will be shown on other websites in just a couple of seconds ).

The good thing about this ads is that you don't have to own a site and place other's ads on it, so you can earn credits ( it's not a mandatory thing ). If you have enough advertising credits from surfing other sites, for example and you set them for that ad, it will still run on other websites. But if do have a site or blog and want to place some of those ads on it, just go to the same "Promo tools" tab, then select the "Website code" option, customize the ad box to match your sites' or blog's template, get the HTML code and paste somewhere where you want the ads to appear. Pretty simple, huh?

Conclusion: Yeah, I know, this is a long post ( again ), but at least I hope you found it to be informative and useful. Well, beside that, I think CrocAds it is a nice way to drive some extra ( and free ) traffic to your site/blog, without having to work too hard. And since it is free ( yes, there's also the option to buy credits or upgrade your account, but only IF you want to do so ), you shouldn't have nothing to loose, don't you think? Just give it a try and see what results you get. Should it are good, continue using this service. If not, move on to something else. Either way, I wish you good luck!

The best and most complete "Make Money Online" e-book I've ever seen!

noreply@blogger.com (Tiberius Burciu) — Mon, 05 May 2008 16:23:00 +0000

First off, I'd like to ask you why are you visiting this blog now? Yeah, I'm asking you, the one you're reading this post..Oh, I get it: you've probably seen the title of the article somewhere on the internet ( on a site like PostOnFire or BlogEngage, possibly ) and you're so curious to know more about this "magical" e-book, that you've clicked the link and you ended up here, on My PPC Advertising dot Info.

If so, then please let me tell you that I won't be talking about an e-book which you can download it for free or buy it from a certain website, and which will show you how to make tens of thousands of dollars everyday, for the rest of your life. Nope, it won't happen today. In fact, I ain't gonna review/promote ( whatever you wanna call it ) ANY e-book in this article. "Ok, then you've just wasted my time with this stupid crap!! I hate you for that..I really do!!", I hear you saying out loud.

I'm aware of that. And you're not forced to like me or my blog, that's for sure. But I'd like to ask you a favor, before jumping head-in first next time you want to say something: at least, please read the post I'm writing till the end and you'll see what's about, ok? :)

So, as I was saying, it happened to find a website today, which looked like a sales letter ( I think you're pretty familiar with this type of websites..you know, the ones that are trying to sell you a miracle product, e-book, service, what-so-ever.. )..and to be honest, it was a sales letter. But the thing about this particular site was that it wasn't you're ordinary "buy my product and experience the best moments of your life" type of crap. Nope..this one was extremely funny. Yeah, you've heard that right: funny!

The author of this web page ( haven't seen his real name anywhere on the site ) was actually making fun of all those sales letters websites you see on the internet. This funny little site is called MyStupidEbook.com. And despite it may sound like the owner is selling an ebook, he isn't! As I've mentioned, he only makes fun of those annoying sales letters sites we all know ( NOTE: Don't get me wrong here fellas: there are sites that DO sell you good products/e-books/services, but there are also awful ones. Neither me or the owner of MSE ( MyStupidEbook ) are trashing the ones that are worth being visited! ).

I've spent some time earlier today reading the above mentioned site, and I've started laughing at one moment. Why? I mean come on..how can't you not laugh when the owner says that ( and I quote from his "Yahoo Publisher Network payment statement" ):

"Date: Nov. 6, 2006

Subject: Dear Yahoo! Publisher,

When we got to work this morning and saw how much you made, we shit ourselves. We would like to pay you with PayPal. Not through PayPal, with PayPal. The whole company."

And next to this message, he shows a "proof of payment" from his "Yahoo! Publisher account", which reads: Infinity Dollars ( and the sign..that upside down 8 ) - LOL!

But that's not all! Oh no! He also says that his ebook is so damn great, that he is actually so rich that he can afford owning an Air Craft Carrier, the planet Mars, have Superman as a servant and also own Australia..LMAO!

Credits go to MyStupidEbook.com

Another "convincing" section of his website are the testimonials. And the owner says they all come from "real people just like you, who've made it big". I guess this part is a must-read for anyone willing to buy his "e-book". What could've asked for more? They are REAL people ( haha ).

If this review convinced you to go and buy the "ebook", then please go ahead and do this now, until the current special offer ends! Normally, you'd buy it at "$152,000/piece", but only if you act now, you'll get it at little below $500! Definitely, an offer you wouldn't wanna miss at all. This can change your life, starting today!! Buy now!

April's income and traffic report

noreply@blogger.com (Tiberius Burciu) — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:19:00 +0000

As you can see, it's that time again: it's the beginning of a new month, when most "Make Money Online" blog owners are showing their readers and visitors what they've managed to achieve in the previous month ( and I'm talking about income and traffic reports, mainly ). Because this has now became a tradition ( yes, I think it can be called like that ), I would like to also stick to it and present you my last month's achievements. This is nothing too fancy, just a short and to the point article ( at least, that's what I say now, cause sometimes I get carried away and I almost forget to put an end to my posts - LOL! ). So, with no further ado, here are my income and traffic reports..

1. Income report

I can say that April was quite a good month for me. Why? Because I've managed to earn $121.63. Is it a lot? Is it too little? As I said already, it's ok. Really, I'm not the kind of guy who's expecting to make thousands with this blog, at this stage ( especially when I didn't even had much time lately to take care of it ). And it wouldn't be right either. It's not a smart move to have high expectations, only to see that you're not accomplishing them in the end. This can become frustrating, believe me.

Now, you might want to know which were the income sources that earned me almost 122 dollars. Because I see you're a bit curious, I'll make a list and show them to you.

- Buxed.info ( a PTC - Paid To Click - website ): $16.55
- Bux.to: $1.00
- Bidvertiser: $0.06
- SpeedyAds: $0.31

- Text-Link-Ads: $8.50

- TNX paid review: $30
- Webdesign for a friend: $65.21

TOTAL: $121.63

So, as you can see from the list above, even though I haven't been to active in the blogosphere ( or on the "Make Money Online" stage, as a whole ), I still managed to make some good bucks :). I'd say it's not bad at all, huh ( but of course, there's always room for better stats, you know )?

2. Traffic report

In April, my blog was visited by 1,140 people, which generated 1,452 page views. The traffic was indeed a bit lower than in other previous months, because as I've already mentioned in this post, I haven't had much time available to invest it in writing more articles or promoting the blog as I should've done. Out of those 1,140 visitors, 941 were seeing my blog for the first time, the rest being returning visitors ( 199, to be exact ).

The main traffic sources were, as follows:

- EntreCard: 73 visitors
- MakeMoneyForBeginners: 64 visitors
- LinkReferral: 60 visitors
- EntreCard Widget: 55 visitors

Of course, there were other sites or blogs that have sent traffic to my blog, but if I were to mention them all in this post, the list would be way too long and potentially boring for anyone ( even for me ). Other stats: Google PR: downgraded to zero ( I have no idea why, but who cares, anyway? ); Alexa Rank: 176,689; Technorati Rank: 236,302

"In the end, what are your goals for this month?", I hear you ask. Well, as usual: producing more quality content, improving my blog's traffic, search engine position, Page Rank ( even though I do not care that much about Google's PR anyway ) and launching my very first niche website. I told you before that I'm working on a niche site..Until now, I've managed to find a host for it, a design and the content ( which is important, by the way. I mean, what's a site or blog without content? I tell you what it is: just a simple, blank webpage..nothing more ). I still have to optimize it for the search engines and start advertising it, before seeing any profits from it. But I'm patient. I have no reason to rush out and have high expectations ( remember what I've said in the beginning of this article? ).

And now, I would like to thank all of you for once again being here with me: thanks to all my readers ( 33 - keep'em coming! ), visitors, friends, advertisers etc. Without you, I'm sure there wouldn't be no My PPC Advertising dot Info. I wish you all the very best!

Yours truly,
Tiberius Burciu

I'm back to my usual blogging routine

noreply@blogger.com (Tiberius Burciu) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:18:00 +0000

First of all, I want to say a warm hello to all my readers and visitors. As you can see, I've returned home from the countryside and I'm once again ready to resume my usual daily activity, which also includes blogging. I've mentioned in the last article I wrote before leaving for my Easter holiday ( which, by the way, was awesome ), that I have no intentions in not updating this blog anymore. I mean, why would I want to do so? I believe that you all like what I write here, so it wouldn't be fair to you, if I were to shut it down or not updating it regularly no more.

Don't worry: this won't gonna happen ( not now, nor tomorrow, or next month ). I will blog at My PPC Advertising dot Info as long as possible and I hope you'll remain my loyal readers and visitors for the life of this blog ( though of course, you're not forced to do so :). Now, you're probably wondering when will I publish the next article? The answer is tomorrow, because it's the 1st of May. And this means that a new month starts and as you already know, this is the time when most "Make Money Online" blogs are publishing their income reports and other stats, from the previous month, which just ended. Until then, I still have some work to do at my niche website: I must add 8 more pages to it, after which I'll be able to start promoting it and hopefully, I'll manage to drive some traffic to it..because, if there's no traffic, there are no money, right?

So, I'll get in touch with you again tomorrow, when my monthly income report will be revealed, along with other information and miscellaneous thoughts and ramblings of mine. Till then, I wish you all an wonderful day/evening and have fun!

Best regards,
Tiberius Burciu

I will be away for a couple of days

noreply@blogger.com (Tiberius Burciu) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:42:00 +0000

Yep, the title says it all: I'm going to take a short break, for the next 3-4 days, starting from tomorrow. I wanted to let you know about this, so not to think that I've dumped this blog for good and that I will never going to updated it again. But why this little break, you ask? The answer is simple: there are only a few days left until Easter ( yes, us, Romanians are celebrating this holiday in April..probably a bit later than the rest of you, who've already celebrated it ), so there are a lot of things to be done until then ( and you know what I mean ).

Also, I won't be home during this break I'll take. Tomorrow, I'll leave Pitesti ( the city I currently live in ) and I'll head to the countryside ( 60 km away from the above mentioned city ), with a friend of mine. We, along with our families, other relatives and a couple of other friends, will be spending the Easter holiday there. Even though the weather isn't too good now ( at the moment I'm writing this post, it rains ), I hope we'll have a nice time, after all.

Once I'll be back home, I'll resume my blogging routine, as usual. But until then, I'd like to wish you a Happy Easter, ( especially to all my fellow Romanians ) and take care of you, alright? I don't wanna hear that one of you have done something bad, as I'm gonna spank him/her if I find out -LOL! Now, for the rest of this day, I have some work to do at my niche website, so I don't know for sure if I'll write another article on this blog ( I have to "play around" with HTML codes, and this is not such an easy job, mainly because there are a lot of pages to be created, a ton of links/hyperlinks to be written and so on ). In this case, I wish you a nice day!

Cheers guys!

Yet another EntreCard-like website - 125Exchange.com

noreply@blogger.com (Tiberius Burciu) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 19:48:00 +0000

By now, it's very likely that you might have heard about EntreCard, no matter if you're a blogger or a blog reader. Lots of people talked about this service, there were tons of articles written about it and it generated quite a lot of buzz in the blogosphere since it was born. But just in case you have no clue what EC is, let me tell you in just a few words.

Simply put, EntreCard is a free traffic building service. In order to benefit from it, you first have to create an account. You don't have to worry, as no one will charge you for becoming a member of this site ( remember, I've just mentioned above that this is a free service ). Now, once you've successfully created your account, the next step you have to take is to install a traffic widget on your blog ( just like the one you see here, in the "Drop it!" box ). The installation is pretty simple: just copy the widget's HTML code from your EC account and paste it somewhere on your blog, in a place where you think will get the most exposure. That's it! If you've done this operation correctly, then you should be able to see the widget in the place you've put it. If not, then you've probably forgotten to copy a part of the HTML code. In this case, just repeat the earlier mentioned operation once again.

After you're done with this step, you can start earning EC credits. You can do this several ways: by visiting and dropping your on EC card on other blogs, by approving other people's ads to run on your widget, or by letting other bloggers drop their cards on you. The more credits you have, the more ad spaces you can buy on other widgets.

"Ok, ok, I know what EntreCard is already! Just get to the point of today's post, will ya?!" Oh yeah, I got carried away for a second. Thanks for the reminder! 125Exchange.com ( the EC-like service I'm going to talk about now ) is a free traffic building tool, too. If you wanna take advantage of it, you must sign up first ( well, I guess it was an obvious thing, anyway, right? Just felt the need to say it :) It doesn't matter if you're John Chow, Shoemoney or John Cow, or just a newbie blogger: you will be accepted to use this service, as long as you're not breaking any rules.

And speaking of rules, I think it's important for you to know which this are ( quoted from the 125Exchange official website ):

1. Your ad must look professional. Homemade looking ads will not displayed on other blogs.
2. Blogs only. Your blog must have at least 20 posts and be recognized by Compete.com.
3. You can only promote your blog or your services. No third party sales, CPA, lead sales, etc.
4. No get rich quick schemes or MLM opportunities.
5. All banner ads and blogs are approved for content before being activated in the Exchange.
6. All banner ads must be displayed above the fold on your blog.
7. Your blog must not contain adult or other inappropriate content.
8. Your blog must be quality and fast loading.
9. Your banner ads must be less than 30 KB size.
10. You can upload up to 3 different banner ads and monitor statistics for each ad.
11. If you operate more than one blog, you are welcome to enter all of them in the Exchange
12. You can start or pause your ads at anytime.
13. All blogs and ads will be monitored on a regular basis.
14. You can place multiple ads per page for extra exposure, above the fold.
15. The code generated must be pasted in the 'body' of your page. The system will not start trading until it sees the code and receives 10 impressions.

"I've read all the rules and I've signed up for my account. What's next?", you ask. If you've done so, then you're one step closer to start receiving new visitors to your blog. But before this to happen, you still need to do the following:

1. Upload a 125x125 banner to your account ( if you do not have one, my recommendation is to contact Jay and ask him to design one for you ).

2. Select the categories where you want your ad to appear ( and the ones from where other ads will be displayed on your blog ) as well as the countries. There are about 43 categories, so its most likely to find the right one for your blog. If you want to get maximum exposure for your ad(s), you can set them to be displayed in all categories and countries, 24 hours a day, 7 days/week.

3. Once you've completed number 1 and number 2 steps, don't forget to include 125Exchange's traffic widget on your blog! If you don't do it, your own ad will not be displayed and you won't be receiving any visitors!

What else should I tell you about this service? Umm, let's see..Oh, yes: when you'll create an account for the first time, you'll receive 5,000 free impressions, just to get you started. Not only that, but you'll also be earning more impressions, if you refer others to 125Exchange.com, or by writing a short review about the service they provide ( by doing so, your account will be credited with another 3,000 free impressions! ).

You know what I like to say: if you want to know more about a service/website/program I promote, then why not to check it out yourself? I mean, this one is free to join, you have nothing to lose and you can even see some extra visitors coming to your blog. I think it worth a try, huh?

Emoticons for your Blogger blog's posts

noreply@blogger.com (Tiberius Burciu) — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 17:04:00 +0000

Since I've started blogging on Blogger ( back in August 2007 ), I've always had one regret: and that was the fact that you can't use emoticons in your posts. Some of you might say "So, what's the big deal? This blogging platform has its own limitations. If you want to use smileys and emoticons, why not to switch to WordPress?" Yeah, I agree: there are some limitations when it comes about Google's blogging platform and a switch to WP ( WordPress ) would solve the emoticons problem, but why not to try and find a solution to it ( other than the one already mentioned above ) ?

So, this made me wonder: how can one Blogger blogger can finally include emoticons in his articles? I mean, there are lots of people who use this graphical signs and I tend to believe that they kinda spice up the posts a little bit, don't you think? With this said, I've decided to do a little search of my own and see where can I find a script or HTML code which you can include it in your blog's template and make emoticons available. The first thing I did was to go to Google.com and type in the search form the following keywords: "smileys for blogger blogs". Then, I've hit "Enter" and after a few seconds, I got the results: lots of websites and weblogs ( or simply, blogs ), were offering scripts and HTML codes for displaying emoticons in your blog's posts.

As the list of results was quite big, I've clicked on the link of the first blog which appeared on page one, in SERPs ( Search Engine Results Pages ). I took the code listed on the respective blog ( named BloggerEmoticons ) and paste it in my own blog's template. After a few unsuccessful attempts in making this HTML code to work, I said to myself: "Ok, I had enough with it! I just have to find either another code, or something similar, but less easier to work with." Now, don't get me wrong: I won't say the code wasn't working at all. But the point is that I'm by no means a HTML expert, even though I know the basics of working with this type of programming language. And I get pissed off, when seeing that things don't wanna work the way they should, no matter how much I try this.

So, I've dumped the above mentioned script ( or code, name it however you like ) and started looking for an alternative to it. Didn't took me much time to find one..Want to know it's name? Of course you do: the site is called Emoticonizer.info. You'll ask me: "So, what I'm gonna find here? An easier to use script or HTML code to include it in my Blogger blog's template?" My answer is no. "What?! Then why in the world are you wasting my time with this site?" I'm not wasting anyone's time ( because you and I both know time is money ) but I should give a more detailed explanation of what can be found on Emoticonizer dot Info.

They are offering you not just one single HTML code, but a bunch of them. And this is because each of this codes correspond to a certain emoticon. "I got that, but I'm a busy blogger or [ insert other appropriate words here :) ], and have no time to visit this site daily, just to copy/paste smileys codes into my blog posts..Isn't there an even easier alternative to this?" Luckily for you, there is such an alternative. Emoticonizer.info has some small pieces of software which you can download for free and use them to instantly generate emoticons/smileys, without you having to visit the site every time you need them.

You don't have to worry: the softwares are not some complicated tools, which can only be used by seasoned programmers, nor they contain any types of viruses or spywares. I know this, because I've tested them myself. It's all about clicking on an emoticon and obtaining the code for it, then copying and pasting that code into your blog's template. It's really that simple! You'll see below some screenshots of one of the softwares I'm talking about. Note how simple its interface is.

To the left: The simple to use interface of the emoticons creation software

To the left: An example of emoticon sign ( the "Big Grin" )

To the left: The "More Smileys" function, which allows you to use various other emoticons in your blog posts

As you can see, it's easy to use. I know, I said there are HTML codes involved here, but you've seen none. It's true: only some emoticons are made of a code, while others are just a combination of signs ( like : ) or : D ). I would recommend you to use the "Yahoo!" smileys, as they're the most known type of emoticons ( and are made of a HTML code ).

Of course, you too can find other scripts related to the ones I've talked about today. Just do a more detailed search on Google and you should find something useful. In the meantime, I hope this post wasn't too boring for you, but rather interesting and maybe it even answered to some of your questions about how to use emoticons in your Blogger blog's posts. Until next time, have a nice day!

How to build a profitable opt in list in 3 easy steps

noreply@blogger.com (Tiberius Burciu) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 09:58:00 +0000

So, you've just heard that all these big gurus out there on the internet are making money with opt-in lists..and I'm talking big money, not just a few measly pennies per month. Now, you're probably saying to yourself: "Oh, this sounds easy. I can do it too. How hard can it be? I've already finished reading and learning all the tricks of the trade, and I can get started right away." Obviously, the next step you'd take would be to build your very own opt-in list, following the steps you've learned earlier and listening to what your "mentors" have to say, while they would "guide" you to become "rich and famous". Only that, after a few months of high hopes and maybe even a few hundreds/thousands dollars spent on maintaining your list, you will see very little to no results.

At this point, you'll wonder what you've done wrong. I mean, you've followed all the necessary steps, but still, you ain't making those big bucks you're waiting for. The thing is that you've simply dived in, choosing to talk about a topic you thought you knew lots about it and thought it can bring you truckloads of money and popularity. It's not enough to only write a few articles, send them to your opt-in list subscribers and hope they'll go to your site and buy one of your products or sign up for a service you're promoting. But don't worry, as I have decided to give you 3 easy steps to follow, in order to start seeing profits from all the efforts you've put in creating, maintaining and growing your list. With no further useless chatting, I present you the steps:

1. The first thing you should do when deciding to make money with an opt-in list, is to get your customers to trust you and the products/services you sell. Don't make the mistake of thinking that just because you've started a list and have a few hundred people subscribed to it, would make you a believable and respected seller. Take time and write articles about the topic/product/service you want to promote to your list, join some forums and ask for people's opinion about what you have to offer. While you're at this forums, try to get involved in discussions as often as possible, so you can show your potential customers that you know a thing or two about your products. Once you'll gain enough trust and respect from the others, you'll start seeing customers coming to your site, subscribing to your opt-in list and buying from you.

2. Next, you'll have to find a product or service that people really need it. Again, make sure you do a research about it first, and learn how it works and what benefits can bring you and especially to your customers. They will want one product which is simple to use, doesn't requires them to be rocket scientists and which will satisfy their needs. If you have such a product or service, then you're on your way of making some sales and some cash :). And don't forget to give your subscribers some promotional materials, so they can promote it if they liked it.

3. And the final step ( at least in this article you're reading ), would be to make friends with other opt-in lists owners. Try to find someone who already launched a list and had success with it. You may ask why? Because even though you might think you know everything and you don't need to learn anything new anymore, you still need a person who knows more than you and can give you a few more useful tips about building an opt-in list.

This people are experienced opt-in list owners and they'll be able to tell what it's ok to do and what's not, as they've gone through the same situations before and know how to deal with them, when they appear.

Conclusion: building an opt-in list is not a thing which will happen overnight and will make you rich instantly. There are many efforts and preparations to be made, as lists are built from zero and as the time goes by, you need to be sure you're maintaining it properly, to ensure quality content being delivered to its subscribers. I guess you wouldn't like your customers to start unsubscribing from your list, just because you weren't able to keep it organized and manageable, right?

Yahoo! Mail server is experiencing some problems

noreply@blogger.com (Tiberius Burciu) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:00:00 +0000

This is a very short post ( unlike most I'm writing usually ) to let you know that the Yahoo! Mail server is having some technical problems ( I guess ). So it's very likely that you may not be able to check your emails, until the situation returns to normal. And I don't think I'm the only one unable to read his email messages.. If anyone else encountered the same issues like me, please be patient and don't worry. Very soon, the service should work again ( that's what I hope, cause it's actually becoming a bit annoying to receive the "Timed Out" error, every time I try to login in to my email account ). Stay tuned, as I'll write a new ( and lot more interesting ) article, very soon. Cheers!

Make money with your blog or improve its traffic with TNX.net

noreply@blogger.com (Tiberius Burciu) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 21:46:00 +0000

It's very possible that most of you guys have already heard about TNX.net. But let's face it: there are still people out there ( either webmasters, bloggers or just simple web surfers ) that may not have had the chance of checking out this service just yet. This is why I thought it would be nice to talk about it in today's post. So, what is TNX, after all? First of all, the term "TNX" it's an abbreviation of "Thanks". Don't you tell me you never-ever used this short form when sending SMS messages or while chatting online with your friends, via your favorite IM ( Instant Messaging ) program, as I won't believe you:).

"So, that's it? It's just a simple, stupid and boring abbreviation of an word?!" I'm sorry to disappoint you and making you feel like you're wasting your time here, but it is more than that. If you'd stop interrupting me so often, you'd have the opportunity to find out more about this website. Simply said, TNX is a new text link advertising platform, which is addressing to both publishers and advertisers. Obviously, the first category of people want to monetize their sites or blogs and have an additional income source ( different from the ones they may already use ), while the second category would like to spread the word about their products, services etc and drive more traffic to their sites ( therefore, generating more sales and earning more money ). How exactly does it works?

Well, first of all you have to sign up for a free account, so you can use this income generating/advertising platform. Once you complete this easy step ( where you just have to fill in a form with some basic details ), you can proceed to either earning money or advertising your site/blog. What I'd like to mention, for those who have registered mainly for promotion purposes, is that the guys from TNX.net are giving 5,000 points to all new members, to help them with their campaigns ( normally, such amount of points would cost you around $10 ). But there's a catch: to get them, you'll have to go to the DP forums ( DP = Digital Point ) and leave a reply to this thread, saying that you've just signed up and you'd like to receive your free points ( the promotion is still active, as far as I know. NOTE: DO NOT..and I say again..DO NOT forget to also tell TNX staff what's your ID and username, so they can know to who should send those points! ).

If you follow the above mentioned steps correctly, you should get your points. I don't think this whole process is that complicated..After your account is credited, you can start buying links on other relevant websites, so you can improve your websites' or blog's ranks ( and I'm talking about Google PageRank, Alexa PR etc..you got the picture, right? :). What if you just want to make money and you're not so interested in advertising? What should you do? Answer: Again, the process is simple: instead of starting an advertising campaign, just go to the "Webmaster" section of your account ( which is placed on the left-hand side menu of the TNX.net website ) and click on the "Get code" tab. NOTE 2: all the codes located on the "Get code" page are in PHP, ASP/ASPX and PERL language. Unless your hosting account can accept this type of codes, you won't be able to start displaying any links, therefore, you won't make money!

If your hosting account CAN handle this types of codes, you're free to use them ( and congratulations ;)! Also, don't forget to first add a site to your TNX account, for an easier way of tracking your performances ( and not only ). This is made by clicking on the "Add new site" tab, located right next to the "Get code" tab, in the "Webmaster" section.

Believe me when I say that there are many more things to be mentioned about this fine service. But because this article is probably too long already, I would like to give you the opportunity to find out more about TNX.net yourselves. It's not that I'm an lazy-ass and I don't wanna write all the details..it's just that I like to let my visitors learn more about the sites, programs etc I present by themselves too. Wouldn't you do the same?

Before coming to an end, I would like to let you know a few more things:

1. TNX is running its own affiliate program. Yep, just refer other webmasters/bloggers and earn even more.
2. They also have a free tool which can make all links you're using for advertising campaigns to look as normal as they can be in any search engine's eyes.
3. And last, but not least, you're provided with some useful tips on how to rank high on SERPs ( Search Engine Results Pages ) for almost any competitive keywords or key phrases.

I hope TNX well help you make money with your blog or website, or it will improve its ranks ( should you choose to advertise via this service ). Good luck!

Here's how writing articles can improve your business

noreply@blogger.com (Tiberius Burciu) — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 19:31:00 +0000

There is a wide variety of strategies you can adopt, from paid advertising to affiliate marketing. However, most of these techniques require money. Nevertheless, there are ways to promote your website and increase your web traffic without spending anything. Writing articles is one of the best web site promotion strategies you can use, and they can be very effective. How, you may ask, can writing articles help improve your web traffic? Here are the top seven ways in which it can help explode your business:

1. Reach more people

When you write good articles, it would be a shame not to share them with other people. You can post your articles on your website/blog or you can submit them to other sites such as e-zines, article directories or other online publishing websites. By submitting your articles to these sites, you give exposure not only to your ideas but also to your website. Simply include a link back to your site or include your information in the resource box. With this, you get exposure and free advertising as well. Submit your articles to popular e-zines and take advantage of their popularity. Other sites who find your article relevant may also link back to you. Thus, you increase your link popularity, which is one of the most important strategies in the internet world. Remember that most people are looking for information online and by filling this need with your quality article; you may reap the benefit of more exposure and higher web traffic.

2. Free Advertising

Believe it or not, by submitting your articles to other websites, you have the opportunity to advertise your website without paying any kind of fees. Although you should avoid marketing language in your articles and make it informative and useful to your readers, you can always include your site's link in the resource box. In addition, by making your article relevant and helpful to your readers, you are making a good impression for your website, which could ultimately lead to a visit and hopefully to making some profit. Good quality content in an article is far better and more effective than a few lines of ad space. You have a very special opportunity to presell your product or service to your prospective customer.

3. Gain High Search Engine Ranking

Create a new web page for your article in your website. Optimize your article to make it search-engine friendly. Use top-ranked keywords and Meta tags that can give your website a high search engine ranking. As soon as you upload your new webpage to your server, search engines will spider through it and you can gain an increase in search engine ranking. Remember that search engine optimized content is a very effective strategy to gain a high ranking in search results.

4. Increases Link Popularity

Instead of looking for other sites who would want to establish reciprocal links with your site, you can simply submit an article to other sites. Do not forget to include a link to your site in your resource box. When these websites pick up and publish your article, you automatically get a link partner. Try to get as many link partners as you can. Link popularity is one of the factors used by search engines in determining search engine rankings. Make your article especially useful and appealing, so that more websites will be encouraged to publish it.

5. Optimizes your site for improved search engine ranking

By making your site keyword rich, you can improve the search engine ranking of your site. Remember that keyword density is one of the most important factors that search engines use when determining the search engine ranking of site. However, you should always provide relevant, useful and pertinent information. Avoid keyword-stuffing just to gain a high ranking as this may turn off most visitors. Relevance and quality are still the most important things to consider when writing articles and it will be useful to your site if you make these articles search-engine optimized.

6. Establishes a Good Impression and Reputation

By writing original and relevant articles, you not only give your site exposure, you are also creating a good impression on your prospects. Encourage more people to visit your site/blog and do business with you by establishing an impressive reputation through your articles. Be seen as an expert in the field and your will ultimately gain more customers eager to do business with you.

7. Enhances your credibility through references and feedback

Certainly, your articles are going to receive feedback when you publish them in e-zines and free article sites. Record these positive feedbacks and comments and use them as promotional material in your website or in any of your advertising efforts. Your credibility will be greatly enhanced by the feedback, as it will create a good impression on your potential clients as well as your existing customers. Original, relevant, useful and pertinent articles are important tools you should utilize to improve and explode your business.

Always check an EBay seller's reputation before buying from him

noreply@blogger.com (Tiberius Burciu) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 20:23:00 +0000

When you buy something from an eBay seller, you are giving them your money and hoping that you will get something in return. However many guarantees of safety eBay might make to you, nothing is certain: if you just give your money to scammers all the time without doing any checks then the chances are you won't get all of that money back.
That's why you should always check the seller's reputation, or 'feedback rating'. This is a quick and easy-to-read summary of their history as an eBay seller, which gives you some idea of whether or not you should trust them with your money. Buying anything is a calculated risk: you want to minimize that risk.

Checking feedback ratings

On each item's description page, there is a box in the top-right hand corner about the seller, with the title 'Seller information'. This contains the seller's name, their feedback score, and their positive feedback percentage, as well as any stars they have earned.
Different colored stars are given to eBay sellers depending on their rating, in this sequence: yellow, blue, turquoise, purple, red, green, shooting yellow, shooting turquoise, shooting purple, shooting red. Anyone with a 'shooting' star is an experienced eBay member who you should be able to trust.
If you click on the seller's name, you can get to a more detailed view of their reputation - their 'member profile' page. This page shows the total number of people who gave them a positive or negative rating, as well as a breakdown by time. You can also see a complete history of all the comments that have ever been left about them, with the most recent first.

What you need to look for

You might assume that anyone with a very high number can be trusted, but that isn't always true. It is more important to look at their positive feedback percentage - and you should really consider anything below 99% to be a red flag and investigate further.
Take a look through the first visible page with the most recent transactions: are there any negative comments? What do they say? Take others' experiences into account, as they could happen to you if you deal with this person. Be careful not to punish sellers unfairly, however, if they did bad things in their past on eBay but have improved since. You should look at the breakdown by time and ignore any negative feedback that was left a long time ago. Equally, though, you should sit up and pay attention if a seller seems to have been left an out-of-character amount of bad feedback in the last month or so.

Now that you know why it is important to check a seller's reputation, I believe you'll be more careful and think twice, once you decide to buy something from eBay. Keep sharp and be safe!

Monthly income and traffic report

noreply@blogger.com (Tiberius Burciu) — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 21:08:00 +0000

An warm hello to all my readers, subscribers and visitors in the new month of April. Nope, this is not a joke: I'm back after a long period of absence. Probably that some of you thought "That's it..This guy is not going to update his blog anymore..He's out of the blogging game." Well, you were wrong! You see, I had some problems that I had to take care of ( nothing serious, so don't worry :) and I'm now glad to tell you that I can finally return to my everyday blogging routine. I know, I've mentioned this in my last post too, but I broke that promise. It was unfair to do this, so I'm very sorry for that. I'm not the kind of person to say one thing and then just not respect his own words, but as I've already told you, I had to deal with some personal problems, plus I was kinda busy at college, with some projects, test papers and all the rest ( I think you know what I'm talking about, especially if you too are a student ). Heck, there were some crazy times around here!

Not anymore! Those times are now over! From today on, this blog will once again be updated at least once every 2 days. And yes, this is a promise which I'm not planning to break! You don't have to unsubscribe, no need to forget about it and never return here. In fact, I will appreciate every visit, every comment, every friend, link or banner exchange request you might propose to me and I will be more than willing to do it. So, if you want me to be your friend, or if you feel the need to voice your opinion regarding one of my articles, just do so. I'll make sure to return the favor:)

Right..I feel better now and I hope you understood why I missed the action that much:) Let's get to the main subject of this post, shall we? The grand total for last month was [insert drum rolls here ]...$59.53. Comparing this amount with the one earned in February ( $106.61 ), I can say it's smaller, but not bad. Want to know which were my main income sources? Here it are:

- EntireWeb's SpeedyAds: $ 0.95
- Bidvertiser: $ 0.97
- Blogsvertise: $ 10
- FreeMoneyTeam: $ 1.63
- Zluf Advertising: $ 20.59
- Storze: $ 20
- LamPay Ads: $ 2.80
- FeedProfit: $ 2.59

TOTAL: $ 59.53

As about traffic stats, we have the following numbers:

- Total number of visitors: approximately 2,000 ( 1,973, to be exact )
- First time visitors: 1,663
- Best day: 03/02/2008: 178 people visited my blog
- Top referrers: - EntreCard: 148 people
- StumbleUpon: 142 people
- LinkReferral: 105 people
- EntreCard Widget: 101 people
- Total number of page views: 2,593

I'm totally aware that I could have had better results than the ones you see above, but because I was so lazy...I mean busy, I lost a lot. March was the laziest month I've ever had, because I only wrote 7 ( ! ) articles. That's no productive blogging, believe me.. But as you've already guessed it, I'm about to change that. I'm going to turn April in one of those productive blogging months both me and you were used to see here, at MyPPCAdvertising blog.

So..what other plans do I have for the following days and weeks of this current month? As usual: to write quality content, promote my blog, increase my readership, provide useful information, interact with my fellow bloggers, invest some time in promoting my other "businesses" and to keep the promise I've made in the beginning of this post:). I hope I'll manage to do that, so please wish my luck and support me however you can ( by commenting on this blog, recommend it to your friends, adding me as friend on social networking websites etc ). In the end, I would like to thank everyone who supported me so far ( not just in March ): my friends, subscribers, visitors, commentators, advertisers, and anyone that I may have forgotten to mention here. Thank you very much, guys ( and girls, alike :)! There wouldn't be this blog without your help!

Best regards and take care!
PS: It's a bit late for this, but better now than never: Happy Easter to those of you who have celebrated this holiday! Hope you've enjoyed it! Here in Romania, there are still 23 days left until Easter:) ( I said 23, because it's 2nd of April already ).

5 easy ways to drive traffic to your website or blog

noreply@blogger.com (Tiberius Burciu) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 10:48:00 +0000

First, something a bit off-topic: I'm glad to have returned to my normal blogging routine, after 7 days of inactivity. You may wonder why I haven't published any article for almost a week (!). The thing is I was quite busy, both at college and in my daily life. Plus, I also spent some time online reading lots of interesting stuffs and joining some programs and websites which I found to be useful in promoting my blog and some of the affiliate links I have. I would like to apologize to all those who haven't received any news from me lately, to my subscribers ( which weren't able to read new and fresh articles on a daily basis ) and to anyone who either contacted me via email or through comments and didn't got an answer yet. Don't worry, I'm back now and I will contact you. I promise:)

With that said, let's get to the main subject of this article: driving traffic to a blog or website using 5 easy and even free ways to do it. I believe that you already know how important the traffic is, so I don't have to stress this once again. Not that I hate doing it, but it's somehow obvious:) In fact, it's a no-brainer: without visitors coming to your website/blog, you won't be able to get noticed or earn money. The saying "Build it and they will come" looks a bit outdated to me. Of course, it is important to build a web page, so anyone can see it, but if it doesn't receives any traffic, it's pretty much useless..all your work has been in vain ( sad, but true ).

Now, you're probably thinking: "How can I drive traffic to my newly created site ( or blog ), without having to rob a bank to pay for it?" No problem, I will explain you right away. Just keep reading this article until the end ( and yeah, don't rob any banks, please..it's not necessary :)

1. One of the first methods you can use to increase the number of visitors your site/blog gets, are the forums. It is a known fact that this types of online communities can send you a considerable amount of traffic. And all this for free! Yep, most forums you'll encounter and you'll sign up for won't ask you to pay anything in order to have a membership there. Not only that, but you'll also receive answers to your questions, tips, articles and various other sources of information, which can prove to be useful to anyone. By being an active member, you'll earn the respect of the others, good karma and everyone will consider you as a guy who knows what he 's talking about.

2. Writing articles and/or other kind of content. If you're a good writer, why not to start creating some informative articles and distribute them to a bunch of article directories? It is a win-win situation: people who are interested in the information you offer in those articles will be satisfied they've found it ( and that it had helped them ) and will also visit your website/blog, should they want to read even more or buy one of your products. Not to mention the amount of traffic you may get from doing so ( which is free, by the way ).

3. Exchange links with other webmasters or bloggers. This is yet another proven way of increasing your traffic stats. Every time you exchange links with a fellow blogger, for example, and he/she has a well-trafficked blog, you'll be able to "steal" some visitors, too ( steal here is a figurative term, meaning driving visitors to your own blog..don't think at something else :). For this to happen, you first have to find such a blog and make sure it's in the same niche as yours.

4. Publish a newsletter. If you have regular visitors and a websites which is offering information, reviews etc on a certain topic ( such as how to correctly SEO your web pages, for example ), you have to send such a newsletter to all your subscribers periodically. It may may be hard for you to write so many articles on a daily, weekly etc basis, but if you know someone who could and would like to help you, then this should make your job easier. In the end, all your efforts will bring you some results ( in this case, visitors ).

5. Traffic exchanges. I know this type of websites aren't everyone's favorites, but they can also send some traffic down your way. Even though they may seem as waste of time in your point of view, you can at least try them for a period of time. And if they don't give you good results, you can stop using them whenever you wish. I don't think it hurts to try them.

This are my top 5 picks for today. Yes, there are many other ways of driving traffic to your site or blog ( either for free or for a reasonable amount of money ), but the list would be way too long and I don't want to bore you to death. Time isn't something we have in great supply, this is why I want to keep things to the point:) If you are interested in reading more about this topic, I would advise you to go to EZineArticles.com and read more interesting articles, in the "Traffic Building" section..or simply google for this terms: "traffic building", "drive free traffic to your site", or "free website traffic", and you should find lots of resources to help you. I wish you good luck and enjoy the articles you find!

Number 1in Google in 120 days - Oh, really?!

noreply@blogger.com (Tiberius Burciu) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 15:53:00 +0000

I know, it's everyone's dream to be number 1 in Google's SERPs ( Search Engine Results Pages ). But the fight for this position is very fierce. You're not the only one hoping to get there and you'll have to fight your way to the top. Your competitors want the same thing and they will try to be one step ahead of you, so you must be prepared to outrun them at anytime. This means you'll have to spend some time understanding how a search engine works, do some SEO ( Search Engine Optimization ) for your site/blog, spend some money on advertising ( and especially on pay per click advertising ), write keyword rich articles and quality content. If you're going to do all this properly, then you may have the chance of being the "king of the hill" on Google and other search engines, for the business/niche you're involved in to.

As you can see from above, it's no easy task to be the best..and to maintain this status all the time. Usually, when a webmaster or blogger wants to rank high on SERPs for a certain keyword or keyphrase ( which is relevant to his business or niche ), he'll want to search engine optimize his site or blog. If he knows how to do this by himself ( and do it right ), then he won't need a SEO specialist or company to do it for him. Hence, he won't pay a dime for the job. On the other hand, if he isn't so savvy, he may need help. And believe me, SEO services are quite expensive, not just useful. But if you have a large expenses budget, then I guess you can afford them:)

Now, there are good search engine optimization companies and individuals and bad ones, too. This is why it's important to first do a little research and see what company can provide you the best services, at a reasonable price. If you think that you've found the right one, then you can go with it. If not, keep looking, there has to be one to fit your needs and tastes.

Let's get to today's subject, though. And no, it's not about SEO and how to do it right. It's about a website I have heard and visited lately, named 1on40.com. What's this all about, you ask? Let me explain it to you: this guys claim that they can get your site/blog from its current position on SERPs ( be it 1000 or 10,000 etc ), to number 1, in just 4 months ( that's 120 days ). And best of all, it's free! Well, at least while they're still in BETA ( and this testing period ends somewhere around 30 of March ). So, according to what they say, if you sign up now as a client, you will be able to take advantage of their service, without paying a single cent, for 120 days. Once you'll get to be #1, you'll have to start bidding on that position, so you can keep it.Also, if you're an affiliate, you have the opportunity of making money, by referring clients willing to try the service ( not just during BETA, but even after this period ends ).

Now, I don't know about you, but this looks somehow shady to me. You may ask me why? Because I've done a quick search on Google, for the terms "1on40.com scam" and found some articles, on various sites, blogs and forums, stating that this service is indeed a scam. Chris Bailey mention the same thing on his blog, reminding us about other "get top position quick on search engines and flood your website with traffic and sales" scams which existed on the internet few time ago ( such as Monopolizer.com and MoreThanTraffic.com - very similar to 1on40.com ). In this case, here are the red flags you should pay attention to, should you be interested in signing up as a client for 1on40.com:

1. Guaranteeing something which can not be achieved, though ethical means ( yes, this guys are actually so sure they'll get your site to the top, that they guarantee the service is working ).

2. Lots of anonymous and probably fake testimonials ( I've seen them myself and these were the kind of testimonials you see on all those scam sites out there: people claiming to make thousands of dollars per month, after using the X product or service ).

3. The 1on40.com website has no PR and seems it's not on a top position for keywords such as "SEO" or "SEO services", which should be specific for it.

4. They promise you to submit your site/blog on other "search engines" too. I've put the words "search" and "engines" between quotes, because the ones they'll submit to, don't even exist or are not SEs ( search engines ) at all.

( Thanks to Chris Bailey for the above information )

From what you've read by now, you're probably thinking that it's not worth your time to sign up for 1on40.com. And yes, you're right. I would also recommend anyone who reads this article to stay away from such a site. Even though they don't want you to pay them, you'll still waste your time using their service. Not to mention that your site or blog may be hurt, if this guys won't be using ethical SEO methods, during the 4 months period, while they'll try to get it to the top. Be safe!

Got some ad space free? Monetize it with RevResponse

noreply@blogger.com (Tiberius Burciu) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 19:13:00 +0000

Until about 2 days ago, I wasn't aware of the existence of RevResponse.com. If someone would have said to me "I'm making money online with my blog/website by using RevResponse and I'm satisfied with the results ", I guess I simply have said that I have no idea what this is. Fortunately, now I know what RR is. But probably you don't, so I'll have to tell you more about this opportunity.

I've discovered the above mentioned website by accident, while visiting various blogs, through EntreCard. At one time, I've stopped by a tech blog, as far as I can remember and read some of the articles listed there. Just before leaving it, I noticed on the left hand sidebar of the respective blog, a kind of widget ( or better-said, a banner with some ads ). And below that banner, there was a text link saying something like "Monetize your ad space with RevResponse" ( now, I can't say for sure that the text of the link was the way I've put it above, but nevertheless, was similar ). You know the saying: "Curiosity killed the cat." And you've guessed it: I've clicked the link and went to the official RR website, just to check it out in detail ( I had no intention to sign up, at first..remember: I was curious :).

How can you make money with it? There are 2 main ways of earning with RR: you either display some banners on your website, blog, newsletter or RSS feed, featuring subscription to various magazines ( such as Profit Magazine, EWeek, The Scientist, to name just a few of them ), or, if you think you already have enough advertisements placed on the site, you can promote your own TradePub.com co-branded website, which you're given once you become a RevResponse affiliate. Either way, you WILL make money. The minimum commission you'll get for every successful subscription to any of the advertised magazines, it's $1.50 ( which I don't think it's a low one, by the way ). I haven't found which is the maximum amount of money you may receive for your work, but I guess it depends on how much the owners of the respective publications are willing to pay to RevResponse.com.

Now, let's talk about that co-branded website I've mentioned earlier. What I like about it, is that it's not just like all the other affiliate sites out there. You too know that, when you become an affiliate for a certain program, you may receive a site, so you can promote the products or services of the company for which you've registered. Most of the time, this sites look all the same ( take AffiliateJunktion, for example - just take a look at a few replica websites provided by AJ, if you have the chance to do it, and you'll see what I mean ). But not RR's websites. It's true, you promote the same products like any other affiliate, only that your own site's design will NOT be the same with someone else's.

Instead, the site hosted on TradePub's subdomain ( like http://myaffiliatesite.tradepub.com ), will look EXACTLY like your site or blog ( speaking in terms of design, not content. You don't have to worry about content duplication, as this doesn't exists..only the design it's "duplicated", not your articles. So, the Mighty Google won't penalize you for this :). Don't understand? Here's an example:

I have signed up using this blog's URL: http://www.myppcadvertising.info. No need to show how the design of my blog looks, as you can see it yourself right now;) And my RevResponse affiliate website looks like this: http://myppcadvertising.tradepub.com. Now, you know what I mean? As you can see/you'll see, both the blog and the site have the same design, only that content is totally different. That's something unique, isn't it?

There are no differences between the earnings you generate from your original website/blog ( the one with which you've signed up for a RR account ) and those which come form your TradePub.com site. Same commission as told before. Signing up for RevResponse is fast, easy and most of all, free. Yes, you don't have to pay a single cent ( not tomorrow, next week or next month..but never! ). Once you will register to be an affiliate, your application will first have to be approved ( meaning that the staff of RR will have to take a look at your site/blog and decide if you're eligible or not for their program. If yes, you'll be notified about it and you'll receive your login details. If not, you won't get this details, but you will be notified too ). So, if you want to make money with RevResponse, just sign up now and start earning. Good luck!

SpeedyAds and MFA sites - A possible combination?

noreply@blogger.com (Tiberius Burciu) — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 20:43:00 +0000

Ok, hold on a second..what's with that title? Looks like being wrong, huh? I must be drunk or something..How the heck you can combine Made For Adsense ( MFA ) websites with EntireWeb's contextual ads and see any results ( like earnings )? I know, I know, may sound a bit strange ( or more than just a bit ), but this thing really is possible. Don't believe me? Then let me explain you how I got to this conclusion.

When I had a Google Adsense account ( and I say "I had", because I was banned long time ago ), I was looking for some MFA websites, because I was curious to test them myself and see if and how do they work. So, I've stumbled upon a site which was offering free, ready-made Adsense websites ( I believe that the respective website is called FreeAdsenseSites.net, though I'm not quite sure, as I haven't logged in to my account for some time ). All you had to do was to create a free account, choose what MFA site you want to download after registering and then you had to confirm your registration, so you could receive full access to the site. You could also refer other people to FreeAdsenseSites.net and for every person you were bringing, you would receive points. With the points you had gathered, you were able to "buy" other ready-made sites, from their shop. All the sites you were "buying" ( there were no money involved, you were "paying" only with points ) were having different topics, hence they were geared towards a specific niche, such as Xboxes or Xbox games, for example.

I never had time to really put the sites I have downloaded to the test, so I set them aside for a while. After starting this blog ( on 5th of August 2007, to be precise ), I've remembered about signing up for a SpeedyAds account. Just in case you don't know what this ads are, here's a short and quick description: they are contextual ads ( very similar to Adsense ads ), served by EntireWeb.com, which can be placed on a site or blog and can bring you money every time a visitor clicks them ( so they are pay per click ads ). Signing up for an account at EW is very easy and free: just go to their website, click on the "Sign Up" button, complete the registration form and when you're done, log in to your new publisher account, generate some HTML codes for banner ads and then place them on your site. This whole operation may seem complicated as I've explained it here, but you'll see it's not like that, once you'll do it yourself.

"Yes, I got that, but still..how is it possible to combine MFA websites with Speedy Ads?", I hear you say. Well, that's simple: we have EntireWeb's ads, which are contextual, right? And we have those Made For Adsense sites, which are optimized to work with such type of advertisements. Just grab one site like that ( or more :), and place some banner ads from SpeedyAds on the them, by simply doing a copy/paste operation. Of course, you do have to possess some HTML knowledges, to be able to work with HTML codes, but you DO NOT have to by Einstein to make this work ( I mean, look at me..I'm no genius either, but I've managed to put together this test site, just to see if MFA websites and SpeedyAds can work when combined ).

So, have I made thousands of dollars yet, with this crazy and strange idea? Nope. Why? Because I haven't promoted my MFA ( or should I call it "Made For SpeedyAds"? ) site for now. I was just curious to find out if such a combination will work, or not. I was thinking that maybe this type of sites are made ONLY for Adsense and will not perform well if I will use other alternatives to Google's ads on them. I will have enough time to concentrate on my domain names site later on, should I consider it is a way of earning some extra money online. But for now, I will keep it in "BETA" for a while:)

If you'd like to try this idea of mine too, feel free to do it and please don't forget to tell me what results you were able to get. Good luck!

AffiliateJunktion - A way of making money online or just another scam?

noreply@blogger.com (Tiberius Burciu) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 23:44:00 +0000

The reason why I've written this post is because I would like to hear your opinion about AffiliateJunktion.com. I want to know how many of you are actually involved in this program and if you earn any good money out of it. As you may have guessed, I'm not using this money making opportunity, this is why I can't tell you my own opinions and experiences. But it's always nice to read, see or hear what other people have to say:)

So ok, you're already looking strange at me, because you may not know what I'm talking about. Not a problem, I will clear everything up for you in just a second. Because I'm an active internet surfer ( like most of you, I believe ), I'm always visiting lots of websites. Not all are related to topics such as making money online, search engine optimization or affiliate marketing ( hey, I need to take a break from time to time too :), but it are interesting and informative, nonetheless. And lately, I'm keep seeing AffiliateJunktion.com replica websites popping up almost everywhere I turn my head. Now, don't get me wrong: I won't say "This is a scam and avoided it at all costs!", as it would be a silly thing from me, especially that I'm not a member of this site.

But curiosity kicks in and I just can't help it to ask myself: "How profitable this opportunity really is? It looks like a good way of making money, if so many people are joining AJ everyday."
All those who have signed up to get a replica website and start making some greens with it, have already promoted their sites heavily, mainly through Google AdWords. Not only that, but there's also a good chance for you to simply stumble upon one while googling for ways of earning money online:). But what does AffiliateJunktion offers, so people just can't say no? Things are pretty simple to explain ( and please correct me if I'm wrong ): first of all, you have to sign up to the above mentioned website. Once you're done with this step, you need to buy a hosting package and a domain name for your future website ( the costs are somewhere around 60 or 70 bucks, as far as I've seen ). Your replica website will be ready in 24 hours, after which you can start promoting it and earning some moolas ( dollars, I mean ). How do you make money and how do you advertise it?

Simple: you just have to refer as many people as possible to AffiliateJunktion and they will pay up to $2/lead ( this means you get paid for every person which joins this site via your own one ). As about advertising, you're given a certain amount of money ( for free, you don't have to refund the sum later on ) so you can place Google and Yahoo ads, this way trying to attract potential customers. You also receive support from your own affiliate manager and if you have any further questions or you encounter any problems, you can contact the main support team from AJ.

That's all and it looks simple. Probably that's why so many have signed up for this opportunity. I read myself on a forum few days ago that a certain affiliate has managed to earn as much as 6000 dollars per month, since he ( or she, can't remember exactly ) took advantage of the offer. And in general, all of the persons who got their AJ replica website made some nice money out of it. But there were also others who have experienced lower earnings or were unable to earn anything at all ( as in any business..seems plausible ).

Now, I'm asking you: Are you a member of AffiliateJunktion.com? And if yes, would like to share your own experience as an "insider"? Would be really nice to see some opinions about this highly popular ( I say this because I guess it is, since they already have lots of members ) website. Either good or bad, just let them coming! Thanks:)

It's official! Shrtnd.com is now live! Wanna check it out?

noreply@blogger.com (Tiberius Burciu) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 22:51:00 +0000

You're probably curious to find out what this post will be about. It sure has to do with some money making opportunity or some way of building traffic for your site or blog ( the usual topics I write about here ). Want to know the real answer? It's no..exactly..no! Not today. Why? Because I have something else to talk about and show you.

If you remember, in some of my latest posts I was apologizing for not posting new articles daily. And I was also mentioning that I'm working at a "secret project" with my friend Peter, from MakingMoneyExperiment.com. I have a good news for all of you: we've finished our website yesterday and it is ready to go live now! "But what's you site about? Won't you tell us?"

I was about to do that:) I'm sure that most of you already know what TinyURL.com is and you're probably using this service for quite a while now. In case you have no idea about it, let me explain you what's about: TinyURL.com is an URL shortening service..a free one, to be exact. "Oh, and why is it so special", you ask. Because here you can transform long and ugly URLs ( such as http://www.myownwebsite.com/index.php/images/myphoto.jpg ) in to ones which are considerably shorter and look better ( such as http://www.tinyurl.com/myphoto ). This can prove to be an useful service especially if you're an affiliate marketer. Usually, the URLs you have to promote are very long, complicated and quite hard to remember, even for you. Not to mention that some potential clients of yours may not even click those links, if they see so many numbers, symbols or characters in it. What's the result of this? You make few sales and not enough money..sad, huh? It's not your fault, but that's some people's nature: they are doubtful.

Now let's talk about Shrtnd.com, the site me and Peter put together ( oh look, I got a rhyme :P ).
First of all, it is similar to Tinyurl.com. Yes, you're right: it's an URL shortening service ( by the way, we provided it for free, too! ). The funny thing is that we weren't even thinking to start such a site. But one day, I was surfing the web and found some scripts for sale. More exactly, it was a pack of 10 scripts, valued by its owner at just $8. I know what you may say: "So cheap?! Probably they are not even working!" Guess what: the scripts are fully functional! At least the one we used:) I thought: "Heck, this stuffs may be useful someday, so let me grab the pack!"

I've paid 8 bucks via PayPal and few minutes later I was already the owner of those scripts. The next day I've sent an email to Peter and asked him "How about starting an URL shortening website?" And he agreed. Before doing anything else, we've setup a free hosting account at X10hosting.com, so we can test the script to the max. After that, we bought a hosting pack from HostGator, a domain name from NameCheap and we moved the newly created site to its current "home". But the job wasn't finished yet. There was no text on the website, so we had to think at it and write down..I mean, we couldn't just leave the site as it was..a simple, blank template. Sounds too unprofessional.

Today, our URL shortening service is ready to be launched! You can visit the site at anytime you want and give it a try. There you can find out more reasons on why you should use such a service and if you think it's useful to you ( or any of your friends ), feel free to link to it or even blog about it. Speaking about spreading the word..Me and Peter thought at a little and evil contest, to call it so: the first 10 bloggers who will write a short review about our site, will be rewarded with 200 EntreCard credits! Yeah, it's not actually an outstanding contest, but we appreciate it if you're one of those 10 blog owners to talk about Shrtnd.com ( Shrtnd stands for Shortened ).

All you have to do to grab your free EC credits, is to write a short article about the site we've just launched and link to it. That's all! Once you're done, leave me a comment on this post ( or go to Peter's blog at MakingMoneyExperiment.com and comment there ), mentioning the exact link of the review. We will take a look at it and if it's ok, you'll get your credits. But in order for this to happen, you have to be an EntreCard user! If you're not, you won't get the prize!

We will contact every winner via EC's private messaging system, so be sure to leave us a link to your EC profile:) Thank you so very much! And enjoy the service:)

Blog income and traffic reports

noreply@blogger.com (Tiberius Burciu) — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 15:40:00 +0000

Good day to you, all my readers and visitors. As you know, we've just started a whole new month. And you also know that this is the time when I release my blog income and traffic reports. There's no exception today either..It may be a bit delayed, but a blogger's life is sometimes quite busy: you have to write new articles daily, you have to search for fresh information, to promote your blog and so on. That's why I've posted the article about my reports today, instead of yesterday. If you're curious to see how much cash I've earned last month or how many people visited my blog in February, then please keep reading until the end of the post:)

As usual, I will start by showing you which were the programs and websites that brought me a nice income last month. And this are:

- BringABuddy: $0.59
- EntireWeb SpeedyAds: $0.48
- Bidvertiser: $0.31
- Comission Junction ( also known as CJ ): $100
- Sponsored Reviews: $3.25
- FreeMoneyTeam: $1.18
- LamPay Ads: $0.80

TOTAL: $106.61

The best money maker in February for me was Commission Junction, which earned me 100 bucks ( as you can see from the list above ). The rest of the programs I use for monetizing this blog made only pennies, comparing them with CJ. The truth is, I was more concerned about promoting my blog, rather than earning money, that's why I "only" managed to make $106.61. And this is what I'm going to do in the following weeks to come: I will work on increasing my traffic flow and RSS feed subscribers, which are 2 important aspects, in terms of running a successful blog.

Now, let's move on to analyzing the traffic stats. Last month, this blog was visited by a total of 3,011 people, which generated about 4,210 page views. Most of the visitors arrived here from StumbleUpon ( 860 ), EntreCard ( 209 ), LinkReferral ( 208 ) and from the EntreCard widget ( through the ads placed by me on other blogs - 163 ). The rest came from search engines, various directories, forums, or websites. I'm satisfied with this numbers, especially because it are better than it were in January. As about other stats, I can say that my Google PR ( Page Rank ) remained at 3, as before ( no increase or decrease yet ), but my Alexa and Technorati ranks improved: 256,805 ( for Alexa ) and 418,100 ( for Technorati ).

Conclusion: As you can see too, February was a good month, overall. But this doesn't mean that March will be the same. In fact, I'm planning on improving my stats even more. This will require me to put in extra efforts, but I'm willing to do it. If you want to help me, you can do it by either subscribing to my RSS feed or by telling others about my blog. In the end, I would like to thank you all: my readers, visitors, commentators and others who have been with me until now and helped me grow this blog. I'm aware that without you, I wouldn't be where I am now. Hope you'll keep close to me in the following weeks and months to come, too!

5 qualities of an affiliate marketer

noreply@blogger.com (Tiberius Burciu) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 15:41:00 +0000

First of all, before starting to talk about today's topic, I would like to apologize for not posting any new articles in the last 2 days. It's not that I don't want to write anything anymore, but I'm currently a bit busy, working on a project with my friend Querblogger, from MakingMoneyExperiment.com blog. If you'd like to know what this project involves..well, I'm afraid I can't disclose this just yet:) Things are almost ready, so when we'll go live with our new website ( yes, it's an website, not an atomic bomb, or something else shady :), we will tell you more about it and we will let you see it and test-drive it. But for now, let's keep it as a surprise.

With this said ( and hoping that you now understand why I wasn't posting anything this days ), I should move on and tell you about the 5 qualities that make an affiliate marketer good and successful. You'll see that it's not just about luck or how much money you're willing to invest, but also about how determined or optimistic you are in your quest to make money from affiliate marketing. So here it are the qualities I was mentioning above:

1. You must have the desire to learn. When you'll first start as an affiliate marketer, you may not know all the tips and tricks of the trade, so you have to be patient and have the desire to learn and be trained. The truth is, we learn every day. Even though we may not be in high school or college anymore, we still find out new things daily, either it's at the work place or somewhere else. So it happens in affiliate marketing too: we constantly need to improve our knowledge, our skills, in order to be successful.

2. You have to invest time and effort. Very true! Results won't appear instantly, just because you've set up a site, bought a domain name and threw in some affiliate links and some content. You will have to spend time in promoting your site, adding more content, improving its loading time, its design etc and all this actions require you to do some efforts. No one says you won't be seeing any kind of results in the long run, but everyone will tell you that you have to work to achieve them, as they won't simply pop up in your way.

3. You must be determined. I would say "You must be determined to succeed". If you don't want to make money and be a successful affiliate marketer, why have you started a site and wasted so much time in spreading the word about it, anyway? This really makes no sense. If you lack determination, then it is better for you not to do it. Maybe this isn't for you..in this case, a 9 to 5 job is more appropriate..

4. You must be disciplined. If you'll say to yourself "I'm a disciplined guy and I want to do my best to start seeing some results with my affiliate marketing business." and you also going to do it, then you'll be a step closer in achieving your goals.

5. You must be optimistic. Whatever your goals are, whatever your niche is, you have to be optimistic when it comes about reaching the wanted results. You should never leave anything and anyone to discourage you! Most of the time, you'll hear people saying: "Are you sure you now what you're doing?" or "Man, you'll get nowhere with this site/blog..stop wasting time. I personally believe making money online it's just a waste of time." Well, this kind of persons either don't have a clue of what they're talking about, or they simply want to make you quit, by repeating the same phrases as those above, over and over, to you. In this case, just ignore them and "keep walking":) You know better than this guys and gals what you have to do.

So, there you have, my dear readers and fellow bloggers/webmasters/netrepreneurs. This are the 5 qualities that make an affiliate marketer a good one and will ensure his success. There are probably others, but I was able to come up with "only" those mentioned above. If you know of other such qualities, feel free to leave a comment and tell me which are. Thanks for taking time and reading this article!

Do you like my new design?

noreply@blogger.com (Tiberius Burciu) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 20:13:00 +0000

Finally, after a whole day of hard work, tears and blood ( well, it wasn't so hard, but I like how this expression sounds :), I've managed to come up with a new design for my blog. I was starting to get bored by the old template I had, so I've decided it's time for a change. To tell you the truth, I wasn't planning any major redesigning job so soon, but because I found this wonderful theme you see now, I really wanted to do it. But how did all started?

Few days ago, I've done a quick search on Google for the following keywords: "free blogger templates". As you may imagine, I found lots of websites and blogs which were offering what I was looking for. Now, the problem was that most of the themes and templates presented on those sites and blogs were pretty much the same, only a few being newer. I've seen them before, so I got bored after browsing through various categories, lists etc, searching for the right one for my blog.
But just when I was ready to move on to something else ( like checking my emails, for example ), I saw in Google's SERPS ( Search Engine Results Pages ) one site which I have never visited before. Because I was curious to see if there are any other different Blogger templates than on the other sites, I've clicked the link and I was redirected to EBlogtemplates.com. From the moment I got to this site, the first things which caught my attention were the templates. Why? The answer is: this ones looked unique and I've never seen them before. Not to mention that EBT is not just a place from where you can download new themes for your blog, but also the place to learn various tips and tricks on how to improve it, too.

After taking a look at the themes' gallery, I've picked one which I thought would do well for this blog: it is called WP Theme Polaroid and you're looking at it right now:). Yes, you're correct: it's a WordPress template, converted to be used on Blogger blogs ( like mine ). Never thought making a new template from scratch requires so much work and good skills, such as programming, designing etc. And to quote the owner of Eblogtemplates.com "those who are creating such themes are artists". Believe it or not, it's true. You have to know to work with HTML codes, to design the headers, various icons etc which appear in a template and to use different softwares, so you can do a good work. I admit: I'm not talented when it comes about about drawing or creating designs, this is why I admire those who are doing this.

Even though I said I'm not such a talent at making templates, I still have enough knowledges on how to make them work on this blog:). You thought it's an easy job to change your blogs' design? Well then, you need to think again. It's not a breeze and you probably know it. So, what I've done yesterday?

First of all, I've uploaded this new template and replaced the old one. After that, everything had to be done from scratch once again: I had to copy and paste the META tags and keywords back in the newly uploaded template, to set the fav icon ( that little image which appears right before my blog's URL, represented by my country's flag ), to place the Google Analytics tracking code and the social bookmarking script ( from Feedburner ) and other codes that had to be implemented. Next step was to customize the other parts of the theme, such as the "About Me" and "About the blog" boxes you see on the right and left side of my big photo, the photo itself, the "Recent Comments" box and all the other boxes, widgets or functions which had to be customized correctly.

Have I finished the work now? Almost. Why just almost? I still need to create 3 pages ( About Me, Advertise and Contact ) and link them to the buttons from the top navigation menu. When I'm done with those ones too, I can say for sure that my customization process has ended indeed. You should be able to see and browse my blog without any problems, as I've tested the new template in 4 different browsers: FireFox, Internet Explorer, Opera and Safari. There were no difficulties encountered! However, here's a note for IE users: when visiting this blog, you may not be able to see my fav icon. I guess this is a glitch of this browser, as the fav icon is clearly visible in the other 3 browsers with which I've tested the blog. Oh, and almost forgot: my friend Querblogger reported that there were some pop-ups which appeared when he visited the blog, from his FireFox browser. I DO NOT use pop-ups or pop-unders on this blog and never used such things! They are annoying for anyone and I don't want to drive away my readers and visitors. Again, during my test period, there were no pop-ups, pop-unders etc on this blog, and they did not appeared on any of the 4 browsers used for the test! Should you encounter such a problem, do let me know about it.

Now I would like and appreciate to hear your opinions about my new design:) Thanks!

Is Shoemoney's reputation going down the drain?

noreply@blogger.com (Tiberius Burciu) — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:30:00 +0000

You were probably used to hear phrases like "A-list bloggers are cool, they make loads of cash, they are the best, so let's do what they do and we'll also be rich." or "John Chow sucks..He knows nothing about blogging, he's just talking about what he ate 1 day ago or who he met at I-don't-know-what conference or reunion..or whatever." And believe me, this are quite usual things you hear or read in the blogosphere. It's nothing new. Almost everywhere you look, there are some people, bloggers, webmasters, marketers, forum owners etc, who don't like John Chow or Jeremy Shoemoney. Even I wrote about Chow few months ago, expressing my opinion on how much he really helped others in making money online ( as he claims on his blog and in his Adwords ads ). For sure, the articles I saw on his blog didn't gave me the needed information. So I can say he hasn't been of any use to me. But that's just me, and I'm very wrong ( according to his fans, which may read this post now ). Anyway, let's put John aside for now. I don't care what is he blogging about now, as I'm not visiting his blog anymore. It's just too damn boring..Plus, I'm not his fan, nor I will ever be..not his fan and not his copy, either. Sorry, but I want to be as original as possible:)

How about talking about former AuctionAds.com's owner..don't know who he was? Not that it matters, but his name is Jeremy Shoemaker ( aka Shoemoney - no linklove for this guy..you'll see why ). Last night, I was spending some time on one of my favorite forums, Bloggeries, reading some threads, when I came across this one, written by an user named blogenchancingtips. If you'll read it, you'll see it's only a small summary of three larger threads published on WickedFire.com forum. There, the owner of WF is practically blasting Shoemoney and is accusing him of being a liar and a scammer. Well, I agree, we're not all saints, but what I've read about Shoemaker, really made me think "I never knew he might have done that..".

For example, Jon, who runs the WickedFire forum ( and who also received a C&D ( Cease & Decist ) letter from Shoemoney ), says that this guy actually faked his famous Adsense check! I'm sure that most of you who've been visiting Shoemoney.com lately know about it and you also know the amount of money shown on the check: $132,970. Guess what: according to the same forum owner, it seems Jeremy Shoemaker photoshoped the whole check to make it look like being that big ( I'm talking about the sum of money here...). In fact, the real one was showing only $132,97 ( anyone noticing the difference? ). I can't say this is true, not I can deny it.

But if Shoemaker did this, then he either did it for fun ( don't think it's funny, though ), or he did it on purpose, to make people believe that he was paid that much by Google. Either way, I don't think it's fair. Hold on a second! It seems this is not the only gimmick done by Shoemoney. He may have also fabricated some numbers ( referring to technical data of AuctionAds.com's servers ), when promoting his site. From what I've seen on another blog ( I'm really sorry for not remembering its URL now ), Shoemaker used some old scripts and hardware for his servers, which could have been an instable combination, unable to support the number of ads which he claimed the servers were supporting daily ( up to a few 10s of millions ).

Apart from the above mentioned tricks/gimmicks, whatever you'd like to call them, Shoemoney may have tried to bribe DMOZ's editors too, not to mention that he was kicked out from Yahoo!'s affiliate program, for delivering very pool quality traffic to their site ( he posted on his own blog the conversation he had with one of Yahoo!'s representatives, and it can clearly be seen that 65% of the traffic he sent through his blog, to Yahoo was crap..even worse, those where "customers" who were using false information or stolen credit cards, in their attempt to sign up for Yahoo!'s services ). And the list can go on, believe it or not. It doesn't ends here.

The owner of WickedFire.com is determined to dig deeper and see what other things he can find out about Shoemoney and he wants to put this guy out of the money making industry! In his opinion, it would do more harm, than good to have Jeremy Shoemaker around.

Now, I don't know what Shoemoney has done, or what not. I even don't care, as long as this hasn't affected anyone ( but it seems this happened ). And I won't say I'm backing him up or Jon, from WF. But I would really like to see if we can find out the truth about this "A-list blogger".
Only then those who are now worshiping him will finally see his real nature.

A quick note: This is not a bashing post. I don't know who this guy Shoemoney is and I'm not interested in him, his blog or his businesses..or whatever. I wrote this article because I thought it would be a good piece of information and you may actually be willing to read it. If I've hurt Shoemaker directly, or one of his fans, do let me know ( a C&D letter is one its way to me too? ).

BringABuddy and make a buck

noreply@blogger.com (Tiberius Burciu) — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:46:00 +0000

Yes, the above title does sounds like an invitation ( and I think it is :). You're now gonna ask me "Where exactly should I bring this buddy and who's going to pay me?". Don't be impatient, I will tell you what to do in just a couple of seconds. The other days I was pinging my blog at Ipings.com ( or was it Pingoat.com? Can't say for sure.. ), and one Google Adsense ad caught my attention. And because I was curious to find out more about this site named BringABuddy.net, I've clicked on the respective ad.

From the moment I got on the site, one thought came through my mind: this service is similar to Scratchback.com. "So, if it's similar, why are you talking about it? Anyone who'd like to know how BringABuddy.net works should see your post about Scratchback.com. Isn't that easier?", is your next question. It would be easier this way, I agree, but since most of my readers and visitors are probably new here ( how about subscribing to my RSS feed, if so? ), it's better for me to explain in this post how BringABuddy works, rather than saying "Oh, just go and read this post and you'll find out..". Plus, there are a few terms used on the BAB website, which you won't find them on the SB site and have to be explained right in this post.

Let's get going! First of all, how can BringABuddy.net can help you make money? What it has to offer? The answer: BAB is a way for you to start accepting donations on your blog, it's your fancy "money jar", if you like to call it so. Here's how it works: before making any money with this site, you have to be a member ( obvious, don't you think? ). Signing up it's easy, fast and most of all, free. Yep, no monthly fees, contracts, payments etc. Completely free!

Good, so you've just signed up? What's the next step? Update your profile. To do this, once you've logged in, go to the "Profile" tab, which can be found in your account, just below the BringABuddy BETA header of the site. Things that have to be updated:

1. Tick the following boxes: Website owner, Advertiser, Bringa ( NOTE: You don't have to tick them all. Usually, one is enough. But hey, if you want to make money, advertise or refer new users to BringABuddy at the same time, then please feel free to tick all of them! ).

2. Activate your Rewards Account. "What's that?" Answer: the Rewards Account is actually BAB's referral program. If you set it as active, you will make some extra money for every blog or website owner you send to the site and signs up. NOTE: It requires a one-time activation payment of $2.80, made only via PayPal ( so make sure you have a PP account ).

3. Your payment method ( which by the way is PayPal only! ). In the field next to the "PayPal Email", put in your correct PP email address. If it's not the correct one, then you can't receive your money. Be sure you double check it:)

4. Your normal email address..meaning the one with which you've signed up. Don't worry, it won't be shared with any 3rd party. It's required so the BringABuddy's staff can contact you for various questions, reports etc.

5. Your nickname..usually, the one you used to register on the site and the one which is part of your login details.

6. A hover message. This one is optional. In the field next to where it says "Hover Message" write what you'd like to appear to someone, when he/she hovers the mouse pointer over your nickname. It can be your websites'/blog's URL or just about anything you can think of:).

Once you're done, don't forget to save the changes, by clicking on the little "Save" button, located at the bottom of the profile page. Now, let's move to step 2: Create your BringABuddy widget. Start by clicking on the "Activities" tab, from the top navigation menu of the site. Then click on the "Add a widget" button that you'll see shortly after the "Activities" page loads. You'll be redirected to the widget selection zone. Pick the one you like. There are 9 of them: from the "Minimalist" type, to the "Slate Blue" one. Actually, it all look the same, but the colors are different:). Next, edit the widget, by giving it a name, a description, setting the URL of the page where it will be displayed, the number BringABuddys and Linkas, as well as the cost of a link which will be purchased ( see, that's how you'll make money: people will buy links on your blog or website. No need to worry, as all are made "NoFollow" automatically, so it won't be taken into consideration by the search engines ) as well as the colors of the widget ( try to blend it in your site's design ). When you're done, click on the "Update" button and you'll get a HTML code which has to be placed on your site/blog, via the copy and paste command:). If everything is correctly set, the widget should be visible. If not, then see where you've made a mistake.Pretty cool, huh? That's what I call an easy way of making a buck.

In the end, here are a couple or terms used on the BringABuddy website, as well as here, which you may not know:

Linka: the person who's buying a link in your widget
Bringa: the person who's bringing visitors to a site..kinda like a recruiter:)
BringaLink: your referral link
BringaReward: your reward for bringing new referrals

More answers to your other questions can be found on the FAQ page of the BAB website. So make sure you visit it;) PS: You'll get paid once you reach $20, via PayPal..I almost forgot about that:) Good luck!