Tuesday, July 31st, 2007
You’ve probably seen a bunch of money making blogs following a trend launched by John Chow, that of requesting reviews and giving some links in return. While it may not suck for those receiving reviews, it certainly does for those that do them.
Do consider that for every effort you make online, you have to get something worthwhile in return.
What you give:
- 30-60 minutes of your time to read their blog and review it. Perhaps more then that, depends if you’re familiar with the blog and how detailed you want to make the review.
- a full article dedicated only to their blog, when it could actually be something worth reading for your readers
What you get:
- one link out of 10 or 20 posted there, on a page that will probably be a maximum PR 1 or 2 since nobody will link to it. Please do the math and see how much each of the 10 links gets when you split a PR1-2 into 10 parts (more if you count the blogroll and other links on the page).
- a couple of dozen visitors and a 1 line mention of your blog
- do it more then once and you get to loose me as a subscriber; I can give you a personal guarantee that I didn’t subscribe to your blog to read blog reviews ( if it’s a payed review I don’t unsubscribe, I understand that you’re trying to make money online).
My personal advice: stop screwing around. Would you subscribe to a blog because the owner writes such great reviews of the work done by others?
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Tuesday, July 31st, 2007
Despite what you may think, you actually enjoy loosing money. You just don’t know it yet. You probably heard the expression “Time is money” more then once in your lifetime. Did you ever stop and think how that relates to your quest to make money online? I bet many of you didn’t.
How much money are you making from your 9-5 job, or how much you would make with your skills, in case you’re unemployed right now? I’ll assume a low figure of $10 per hour, just to make sure I got everyone.
When it’s OK and when it’s NOT OK:
1. Instant Messaging - 1hr/day - $10/day or $300/month
OK: spending 1 hour to take an interview, make new connections online or learning new ways to make money from other bloggers. Improving yourself in some way with the help of others.
NOT OK: sharing links or stories, talking gossip, doing chit chat, all these with friends from the real world. Why are you paying $300/month to talk nonsense with friends you can meet in your free time and drink a coffee or beer together.
2. Reading/Writing on Forums - 2 hours - $20/day or $600/month
If someone asked you $600 for a monthly subscription on their forum, would you pay it? No? Then why are you wasting $600 worth of your time to read every single thread on some webmaster forum and writing replies?
OK: writing well thought replies that bring you readers through the signature link, reading a thread where someone is sharing a new tip, looking for new post ideas.
NOT OK: posting just to get a link on that page, together with 20-30 links from the other 10 posters that did the same as you. How much PR do you think you’re getting from a page that will probably be a PR 1 or 2 maximum, shared among the dozens of links that are there?
3. Reading articles or other bloggers - 2 hours - $20/day or $600/month
Are you using any of the advices or tips you’re reading and bookmarking? If not, why are you wasting your money on them. Either use their advices, or stop reading and just do your thing. It will be worth more.
OK: learning something new from the experience of others
NOT OK: forgetting everything you just read 5 minutes after finishing an article; not making use of that advice or tip.
4. Writing posts - 2 hours - $20/day or $600/month
If you had to choose between writing some tips that will help your readers or one where you were tagged to say 8 things about yourself, which one do you think would be worth your time? Do you actually believe I’ve subscribed to your money making blog to read 8 things I didn’t know about you? Why did you just spend 1 hour writing a post that teaches me that you like coffee and you have a big dog named Little John?
OK: providing value with each post
NOT OK: writing something that has no connection to the subject of your blog. Payed posts I can understand, they’re paying for your time and allow you to spend time writing about other interesting posts. Making a non-payed review for the damn iPhone when your blog is about copywriting or blogging tips is wasting both my time and yours. And the same goes for those reviews you make just so another blog links to you in an article where 10 other people share the same honor with you.
Whatever your guilty pleasures are, they’re wasting you way too much money. If you would work those 8 hours/day, you might earn $2000 per month. Are you providing $2000 worth of value every month with your posts and link building efforts? If not, why are you trying to make money online? Stop kidding yourself and start providing value to your readers!
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Tuesday, July 31st, 2007
Well, you’ve probably read the short version in the About page, now for the slightly longer one.
I’ve been stumbling upon some income polls from various webmaster forums and blogs and there are some numbers that puzzle me. Here’s a poll on Digitalpoint, where 402 people voted that they earn less then $5 per day, half of them less then $1 per day. In a ProBlogger poll about earnings in November 2006, 55% earned less then $100 per month.
Now granted, for some it is true that they’re not that interested in making money online, or they might not have the time or the will. BUT, many of them are actually dreaming of quitting their 9-5 job and living just from what they make on the Internet. They subscribe to money making blogs, register on webmaster forums, read and bookmark articles about making money online, link building or promoting. Any of these sound familiar yet? If you are in this situation, why aren’t you practicing what you’re reading?
How many hours have you spent writing great content? How many linkbait articles have you done? How many guest posts on big blogs? Why are you wasting time reading articles about productivity, success stories and making money online, if you’re not using that new found knowledge?
As Seth Godin best put it, if you want to be successful you need to be a purple cow. This is especially true when you’re trying to make money online.
Am I a purple cow? NO! Cows are bland, boring and peaceful. I’m a freakin Purple Shylock (TM).
What Shylock Blogging is about: ruthless blogging, and by that I mean learning and applying every single method to grow your blog and your income. It’s about being a professional when it comes to making money online, not an amateur.
I will write in detail the steps I take to promote and grow this blog, so make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed so you don’t miss anything.
Now, stop wasting your time and start making money.
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