Sign Up With WidgetBucks And Get $25
Oct 27, 2008 Blogging, Blogging tips, Life of a blogger, Make money in blogging, Money making mission
As regular readers may know I haven’t really been one of WidgetBucks biggest fans but if this program does interest you now is the time to join.
Why?
Because it’s their first birthday and, if you sign up, you’ll get $25 - and free money is always nice!
Of course there are conditions. I’ll let them explain, this is what they say:
“To celebrate our first anniversary, we’re reinstating our sign-up bonus that we offered during the first three months for all new publishers: $25 bonus when your account reaches $50.”
But be quick as the bonus is only applicable, as I understand it, to new affiliates for the month of October.
Okay, let me give my honest opinion about Widget Bucks.
On the plus side I have received $172.21 from them and this was all paid on schedule, no problems in this direction. I’ve also got another $32.54 in the kitty - payments are made by PayPal once $50 is achieved.
So that’s okay.
What I did previously find though was that:
(1) Some of the widgets slowed down the loading of my blogs.
(2) The return on CPM (cost per thousand impressions) for international impressions i.e. non USA is very low. However, in saying this, some widgets are based on a pay per click basis and this, depending on the products, is much better.
You can see what I last wrote about WidgetBucks on my post Money Making Spring Clean. Also note the comment on this from Dean Jutilla of WidgetBucks.
I actually took all of the widgets off my blogs a while back but I’m trying them out again now. I have found that the ones I am using at the moment (see header ad on Celebrity Insider) are loading much quicker now.
There is also a bigger choice of widgets. As well as Shopping ones there are also now ‘Local’ and ‘Travel’ widgets. These come in a variety of sizes.
I’m actually trying out the Local version which, to quote them, gives, ‘relevant, real-time local content, such as weather, gas prices, top local businesses and restaurants.’
I’ll leave it at that but, if you are thinking about joining WidgetBucks, it’s probably a good time to join to get the $25.
Also, as I’m being honest, there is a referral program for introducing new members. It’s not over generous but these are the terms:
“… you will receive a 5 percent referral fee based on the commissions earned by the people you refer. You’ll receive this 5 percent for the full 12 months after the new member joins.”
In other words if you joined and earned $100 I as the referrer would get $5.
And that’s WidgetBucks!
Good luck,
Mike.
How myLot Are Sending Money Making Traffic To My Blog
Oct 27, 2008 Blogging, Blogging tips, Life of a blogger, Make money in blogging, Money making mission
Earlier this month I wrote a post myLot And How To get Traffic. I didn’t expect to write about this again. Today, however, I noticed on my stats that myLot are still sending me referrals even though I haven’t been to their site or joined in any discussions for ages and ages.
Okay, it’s not a massive amount of referrals - 241 this month so far - but I thought it may be of interest.
The referrals are because myLot members can now have their blogs listed on the myLot site. I entered my celebrity blog when I last paid a visit and haven’t really given it a thought since then. But now I’m getting referrals.
By coincidence I just went to myLot to have a look, clicked on the ‘blogs’ tag, and there was my blog listed on the front page, right at the top. It obviously won’t stay there but it does explain why I’m getting the referrals.
Anyway, thought the info may be of use. I’m not saying that it will definitely work for you but my basic premise has always been to list blogs wherever possible, even if it sometimes seems a waste of time. As in life … you never know …
Good luck,
Mike.
P.S. While on this traffic subject the following sites, I have mentioned before, are still sending me referrals. For reference, this month to date: Zimbio - 710; Buzzfeed - 294; Mahalo - 192.
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Make Money With Free Blogs: New Advice
Oct 27, 2008 Blogging, Blogging tips, Life of a blogger, Make money in blogging, Money making mission
It’s always easy and satisfying to write positive things about how my blogs are going. Today, however, I feel I have made a mistake, an error of judgement.
From the very start of my Mike’s Money Making Mission my whole idea was to make money using only free blogs and without any capital outlay. This was what I set out to do and have achieved this to my own satisfaction.
If I was starting out now, with what I have learnt, my mission would be slightly different. I would now set out to make money, still with free blogs but by using minimal capital.
What I would do is immediately purchase a .com address. This can cost as little as $10 but I now feel it is essential. It’s still very little money to ‘gamble’ or ‘invest’.
Why do I say this? Quite simply because someone else has now bought mikesmoneymakingmission.com and will no doubt benefit from my hard work. But it’s my own fault sticking to the blogspot URL.
I stayed with the blogspot address with very good motives. I wanted to show that anyone can make money with free blogs even if they are flat broke. In sticking to my principles, and to my exact mission, I probably haven’t done myself any long term favours.
So I say again. If you are starting a blog get yourself a .com address before someone else grabs it. If you are successful you can always sell this if you get fed up blogging.
I have bought one .com address and that was for my adult celebrity blog CelebTease.com (over 18’s only). I’m getting over 2000 visits per day on this and over 5000 page visits so it equates to quite a profitable blog.
As well as stopping others cashing in your work a .com URL also definitely looks and sounds more professional. It is more likely to impress advertisers and also review purchasers.
But, whatever you do, it is possible to make money with free blogs - proven!
Good luck,
Mike.
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Twitter - My Thoughts After 4 Months Of Use
Oct 27, 2008 Blog, Bloggers diary, Blogging, Blogging tips, Life of a blogger, Make money in blogging
For a long time I did not understand twitter. I thought it was pretty stupid. Then an opportunity came. The person who had the shoemoney account sent me a email and asked if I wanted it. I said I did and they just released the account to me. Pretty cool of them. I still did not do much with it until one day Michael Gray sat me down at SMX West last spring and showed me how he was using it (I had to sign a NDA or I would tell). I was pretty fascinated with it So last May I gave it a serious look.
The first couple months I used twitter it was down more then it was up. But I still had fun learning and now its pretty rock solid.
Starting To See The Light:
For the first month I was using the website only. I started to find other people I partied with met at conferences and followed them. Most of the people I hang out with at conferences I only talk to them during that time. The value of twitter was starting to become a little bit more clear to me. The best way I can do it is to compare it with other ways of communicating with people:
Traditional ways to keep in touch:
- Email - I honestly hate email. Between not getting email because of spam filters and people that fricking write a book it drives me nuts. I just do not have time to go back and fourth with emails 99% of the time even with friends. Just takes to much time and if the email is longer then a paragraph its probably lost me anyway. Twitter only allows 140 characters in a tweet. Its very easy for me to respond to pretty much 100% of the people who ask me a question and takes little time out of my day to do so. Also a lot of times with my answers to people it has a nice side effect of answering perhaps what other people were interested in also. Double win.
- Instant Messenger - Being most of our team works remote throughout the country we use Instant Messanger services as our key communication tool. I would say 90% of our communication even inter-office is done with Instant Messanger. I never accept anyone to my Instant Messanger unless there is a very good business need. Twitter is much less informal but still has that feel of an instant messenger client… only it does not bug you when you get a message if you are busy.
Ok so that’s what I realized after the first month. The just of the service IMO is that its a great way to contact people that is much more intimate and to the point then an email yet not nearly as invasive as a instant message.
Great way to find local people:
Being centrally located in what is not exactly a tech hub its been very hard to find developers. We have advertised in the local college papers, traditional papers, craigslist and other means but there has just not been one good source to find the people we are looking for…. until I started using twitter.
Twitter has been a great way to find people that fit well with us. For one if they use twitter they already get some social media stuff but lets go beyond that… Lets say I am looking for a developer who lives around me. I can simply search twitter like this.
Its also good to find local recommendations for restraunts, happy hour specials, and other local events.
Quality of traffic from twitter:
The quality of traffic from twitter is pretty awesome for a blogger. Check out these numbers for the last 2 months to shoemoney.com sorted by highest refer’s of traffic. (click on image to enlarge)
Lets break down these numbers a bit from twitter in the last 60 days I recieved almost 17,000 visitors. Of those 17,000 visitors over 40% had never been to shoemoney.com before. Once they were here though they viewed an average of 2.25 pages per visit and stayed on the site for an average of 2 minutes and 18 seconds. They had a 65% bounce rate.
Now if you compare that with Google traffic that was 95% for the search term “Shoemoney” (and should be the highest quality) that brought in double the amount of traffic but had less pages/vist, less time spent on page and higher bounce rate.
I now consider the #2 most important source of traffic in terms of value behind only stumbleupon which always delivers an amazing about of new visotors with the lowest bounce rates.
How do I get the traffic in the first place? Well I twitter everytime I have a post… so once a day. But the cool thing is other people retweet my posts probably 10x for each one I tweet… kind of a domino effect.
I know I hear the excusers saying it can’t happen to them cause they are not me but guess what its all relative.
The badass twitter reach:
Couple months ago we were really stuck in a rut. We were working on a new application and felt that a service amazon was offering called SImpleDB would make a massive impact on its performance. While simpleDB was open for anyone to appy for they only had about 200 people they let use it. I really wanted to try it out and so I twitted asking if anyone knew anyone at amazon that could get us into the SimpleDB program. Within 1 hour I had 2 different AWS people contact me asking what the application was and what SimpleDB was going to be used for. I replied and moments later got the email saying it was now added to our account.
There has been a ton of other times I have asked for tips, contacts, or whatever about a subject and got help within seconds. Twitter is an amazingly powerful tool.
So to those that don’t get twitter hopefully this makes a little sense. You dont have to have a blog or anything you just need to start connecting with friends. Through friends of friends you will develop an amazing reach.
For those already using twitter whats your tips?
This Post Is From ShoeMoney’s Internet Marketing Blog
Twitter - My Thoughts After 4 Months Of Use
Ride-Strong.com - Free Shirt Friday
Oct 27, 2008 Blog, Bloggers diary, Blogging, Blogging tips, Life of a blogger, Make money in blogging
Ride-Strong.com is a cycling blog that is run by Tyler Ford, which he started in 2007. This blog is really cool, and he has great content related to cycling.
Just a warning there is a really sic picture of a guy with a branch stuck through his leg from a biking accident on the front page. Might be a little too early in the morning to see something like that. 
So if you cycle or want to cycle or just want to read about cycling, check out Ride-Strong.com
Thanks for the shirt!
If you would like to see your website or company featured on Free Shirt Friday click here
This Post Is From ShoeMoney’s Internet Marketing Blog
Ride-Strong.com - Free Shirt Friday
A Country With No Leader
Oct 27, 2008 Blog, Bloggers diary, Blogging, Blogging tips, Life of a blogger, Make money in blogging
I cant believe we are less then 10 days away from the election.
I have always been a political junkie. I love the way politics works. Its a long the same lines of how religeon facinates me. Such a study of psychology and how to get people to do what you want them to do (believe your beliefs, give you money, vote for you, etc etc).
For the first time in my life I am pretty disgusted with our voting population. Not for the way they are voting but rather for what they are putting up with from their elected leaders. No matter what source you look at congress has the lowest approval rating in history. But what are we going to do about it? Do you even know who your congressman is? Do you know how they voted on this recent bailout? Do you know even who is on your ballot in 9 days?
You probably do not and that pisses me off.
When times are tough is when we need to step up and do what it takes to get back on the right path. You work hard for your money and your elected leaders are wasting it and laughing in your face.
I feel like we are a country with no leader. W on the way out and who knows who is coming in. I am actually still undecided.
There are many things I like about both canidates and negative things. I honestly think about this every day and go back and fourth.
So I would like to here from you who you are voting for for president and why?
This Post Is From ShoeMoney’s Internet Marketing Blog
ufc90 Anderson Silva VS Patrick Cote
Oct 27, 2008 Blog, Bloggers diary, Blogging, Blogging tips, Life of a blogger, Make money in blogging
Back to back UFC events! For a true MMA fans this is a pretty stacked card and for newbs to the sport the main even with Anderson Silva should get your attention ;).
Unlike last weekend I think a lot of these fights will go the distance (minus the main card). There are tons of world class wrestlers on tonights card
Rich Clementi VS. Gray Manard - Love this match up. Up in comer and Xtreme Couture trained Gray Manard vs is going to give UFC veteran Rich Clementi all he can handle in this fight. I look for Gray to take this fight to the ground and ground and pound as much as possible but Clementi is pretty dangerous off his back. I look for Manard to take this fight by decision.
Tyson Griffin VS. Sean Sherk - Another great matchup of Xtreme Couture trained younger fighter vs the Muscle Shark Sean Sherk. 2 Great wrestlers… This fight is an absolute must win for Sean Sherk and I look for him to control this fight and win by decision.
Junior Dos Santos Vs. Fabricio Werdum - Junior Dos Santos has never been heard of before to most fans but this guy is a total badass. This is my underdog pick of the night. Right now he is a giant 5:1 underdog. I think this guy will shock the world and knockout Werdum 2nd round.
Thiago Alves Vs. Josh Koscheck - I am totally partial here because I am friends with Josh Koscheck and have partied with him before. He is a really cool guy and I will be rooting for him. Its going to be a massive challenge against Thiago Alves who is coming off of a huge upset win over Matt Hughes. I will go with Koscheck by decision.
Anderson Silva Vs Patrick Cote - I have only seen Anderson Silva have problems twice in his career. Once against BJJ Blackbelt Travis Lutter and against Dan Henderson. Both excellent ground fighters. Cote will stand with Anderson Silva and while he has a punchers chance… its not much of one. I am going with Anderson SIlva by TKO (right hand) 2:22 of round 1.
This Post Is From ShoeMoney’s Internet Marketing Blog
ufc90 Anderson Silva VS Patrick Cote
How To Carve A Pumpkin
Oct 27, 2008 Blog, Bloggers diary, Blogging, Blogging tips, Life of a blogger, Make money in blogging
This Post Is From ShoeMoney’s Internet Marketing Blog
Ask Questions Round 16
Oct 27, 2008 Blog, Bloggers diary, Blogging, Blogging tips, Life of a blogger, Make money in blogging
Its been a couple weeks since we have taken questions so fire away!
Also I have been toying the the idea of doing site reviews. People ping me a lot for advice on how to make money or increase there revenues on their site and a lot of times I wish I could post it here because I think the advice is great content and a lot of people could benefit from it (or disagree with me which is great too).
So if you want you can submit your website from this form. We will see how it goes. Might make it a regular thing.
Comments closed pending answers
This Post Is From ShoeMoney’s Internet Marketing Blog
New Sumo Omni Plus Bag
Oct 27, 2008 Blog, Bloggers diary, Blogging, Blogging tips, Life of a blogger, Make money in blogging
2 years ago I wrote about a Sumo Bag I got online and how much I liked it. Well a month ago in the mail I got a new Omni Plus from them.
The new Omni Plus is totally awesome. My daughter Juliet is now 2 1/2 years old and she loves running fullspeed and jumping on it (and also demanding I do the same).
Here is a picture from their site:
Its also good for just lounging around and reading your kids books too. Great product!
Check out sumolounge.com and pick one up!
This Post Is From ShoeMoney’s Internet Marketing Blog
