As usual, I like to be totally open and honest on this blog, and once again I’ll be revealing my infamous “blog income report” for the previous month. This one covers the dates of March 1-31, 2008.

In case you have forgotten, these blog income reports began as a case study in December of 2005 to see if I could make money in the “internet marketing” niche by placing affiliate links and then telling people NOT to buy products. Reverse psychology, if you will.

The first month was pretty pathetic, as I made a total of 10 cents. I think the problem was that I was running Adsense ads alongside my affiliate links, and Adsense totally cannibalized my sales. Had I gone without Adsense, I could have made upwards of $10,000 at least. I mean, I was averaging almost three visitors per day, with only two of them being family members that took pity on me!

Anyway, those days are long gone. Last month (February 08) was a record-setting month despite it only having 29 days! This blog generated a total of $39,281.19, which averages out to $1354.52 per day. Pretty sweet if you ask me.

But not as sweet as March! The record-setting streak continued and brought in…

Total Blog Income for March 2008: $41,648.03

That’s what I’m talking about! Here is the breakdown:

• Paid-to-surf sites: $19,418.22
• Paid reviews that aren’t marked as such: $11,125.00
• Pharmaceutical offers: $5,104.31
• Trendy 125×125 sponsors ads: $3,829.36
• Subvert and Profit: $2,119.50
• Adsense Arbitrage: $51.64

The blog traffic for March wasn’t bad, either. I managed 357,186 page views from 215,921 visitors, according to my trusty Google Analytics stats. Calculate the site wide eCPM and it comes out to $more than you made!

The icing on the cake is that this is pure profit. Other than the time it takes me to write these posts, I don’t pay for anything. That’s a very important detail right there, so let me explain…

First, hosting. Normally, with the bandwidth I use, you’d be paying close to $2000 each month for the servers (one to run Apache, one to run SQL, and a load balancer.) But my day job has me in control of the IT department at the NYC branch of a fairly large conglomerate… Yep, you get the idea. Compared to the business they do, my blog’s bandwidth is barely noticeable… so it runs on top-notch equipment and no one in the office notices

(It’s not really stealing, I mean, just watch Office Space and you’ll see how it works.)

Second, advertising expenses. Some people spend $30k per month to bring in $40k, but they’re doing it all wrong. See, my content is so amazing that not only do people link to me, they go out of their way and actually purchase advertising and direct the traffic to my blog. It’s really sweet!

Those people are probably thinking about the principle of reciprocity, and think that I’ll do something in return for their kind gestures. Well, they can keep thinking that all day long… but they’ll be losing a lot of money and I’ll be raking it in. I’m saving for a Bugatti Veyron, so I need every penny I get.

How To Be a Six Figure Blogger

I’ve already given you some tips on how to cut costs, but I’m so generous, I want to give you some more advice.

Making money on the internet, whether you’re blogging or twitting or spamming Myspace, consists of two things: driving lots of traffic to your site and then having sales copy so good that not a single person leaves without first buying something. Both parts are equally hard, although the second part can be improved easily by filling your site with lies.

It doesn’t matter how many people read your site if you’re not trying to sell to them the entire time. You gotta start with a pic of a sports car and mansion to show how rich you are (even if you swiped the pics from Google Images,) and then promise that if people give the money to you, that they’ll end up super rich like you are.

(This practice isn’t unethical, either, as long as you have a very tiny disclaimer hidden on your site that says it’s unlikely that the customer will make any money.)

So hopefully you learned something in there. Follow that formula and good things will happen!

(Probably not to you, but surely to someone out there that isn’t stealing bandwidth and deceiving customers!)

Bookmark This Page or Email It To a Friend

“Oh darling, I’m glad you could stop by to see little old me!”

“Shut it granny. Start knitting!”

If that’s how your last conversation with your grandma went, you might just be the next dot com mogul. But if not, there’s still time to exploit her in order to support your crack addiction.

I got the idea from the “Socks with a Story” story over at Springwise (an entrepreneurial ideas blog.) Once I saw it, I knew it would be perfect for the conniving internet marketing crowd!

In Switzerland, there is a company called NetGranny that is a collective of 15 grannies who knit socks “on demand” when someone orders online. Customers get that warm fuzzy feeling from knowing that the socks were made just for them by someone they saw online. And they certainly pay a premium for it - $38/pair at today’s exchange rates!

(Considering the terrible German to English translation on their site, I doubt many Americans are ordering from them. That leaves the market wide open!)

If a few grannies can get together and make money selling socks online, surely an internet marketing guru can put together a similar website with even better marketing materials to make it more convincing. It doesn’t matter if the socks are knitted by your grandma, yourself, a group of metrosexuals, or even if they come from your local thrift store. It only matters where the customer thinks they are coming from!

Follow this step-by-step tutorial and you’ll be raking in the dough in no time:

1. Find a source of knit products, whether they are socks, mittens, caps, whatever.

The point here is to find something that you can get your hands on.

2. Craft a story about where they come from.

It could be “a 100 year old grandma that immigrated from Norway in 1910 that had to knit socks to survive the cold” or “a group of grannies passing the time at Rose Shadow Nursing Home, knitting for the children they wish they had.” Just so it inspires feelings.

3. Make a website that tells the story but also uses slick sales techniques to convince visitors to shell out $50 per item.

(Big red font and fake testimonials will be great, but unfortunately there’s no need for a 3D ebook cover.)

4. Send some press releases and run some ads.

Now you need to exploit potential buyers, convincing them to buy your product. A TV infomercial would be good, because you could use that to show a happy family enjoying their knit socks.

5. Profit.

If you did steps 1-4, this should take care of itself.

6. Call a lawyer when you get exposed as a fraud.

Hire a good lawyer and they’ll keep you out of trouble. It worked for OJ Simpson.

7. Leave the country and live off the money you made and deposited in an off-shore bank account.

Just 7 steps gets you from a nobody to a millionaire with their own island. Who says internet marketing sucks?

[This post is being entered into the Tutorials writing project at DailyBlogTips.com]

Photo credit: caswell_tom (who does not exploit his grandma!)

Bookmark This Page or Email It To a Friend

For the past decade, millions of people have flocked online in search of instant riches. Whether they were going for free iPods, autosurf traffic, paid surveys, pro blogging, or a host of paid-to-click sites, they were just acting on a basic instinct that has been around for longer than I’ve been alive.

Before the internet was huge, it was envelope stuffing and chain letters. Before that, fool’s gold and snake oil. (Heck, some people are still doing work from home jobs like fishing for used golf balls!)

We know all the scams. But what were people doing in the 1930s and 40s?

According to that ad, people were buying how-to books! I’m not surprised. The How To Be a Taxidermist book is the same concept as today’s How To Make Money In Forex Markets ebooks. They take a complicated profession, dumb it down into an ebook, and write a sales letter that claims you’ll be able to be successful after doing nothing more than reading a short book.

So not only are people still looking for get-rich-quick scams, they still fall for the same tricks!

Want to see more crazy jobs and home-study courses, such as rabbit farming, toy making, crime detection, giant frogs, and even dentistry?

See the complete list (with images) here: Offbeat Jobs From The 30’s And 40’s

Bookmark This Page or Email It To a Friend

Profit Peelers is a new ad network that specializes in those “peel away” ads you see in the top right corner of some websites. The ad style is somewhat interesting, which is why I got sucked into this, but it turns out that Profit Peelers is a big joke.

All it amounts to is the peel away ads script running on their server instead of yours. It uses their ads and infrastructure so you can get the peeling ads on your site without buying the script (in exchange for losing out on a chunk of your ad revenue.)

It actually sounds good until you go in and look at their offers. The offers are from Maxbounty and other ad networks, so Profit Peelers acts as yet another middleman between you and the actual merchant. It reminds me of the AuctionAds formula (lots of eBay affiliates banding together looking for a higher commission %), except that in this case, there is no such incentive for increased performance. And if there is, Profit Peelers reaps all the benefits.

It gets worse… a lot of the offers are expired. These CPA campaigns only last so long and then they need updated. Well, I don’t think Profit Peelers has been updated since August 2007. Now the Profit Peelers links go to either 404 pages or unrelated offers.

For example, here’s a Free PSP offer.

(Click image for a larger view.)

If you look closely, you’ll see that a user has commented how the offer expired a month ago, but it’s still listed. Way to take care of your publishers!

The next screenshot is the landing page… yep, a Visa gift card page. Definitely not a PSP page.

Stay clear of this one.

However, the PeelAwayAds script itself does seem interesting. It might be worth a shot for the $27 it costs. (It’s a neat script, not some get-rich-quick crap.) I haven’t used it yet, but if I do, I’ll tell you the level of “suckiness” I find.

The only problem I see is that you’ll have to have some good graphic design skills to create appealing ads (no pun intended!) But doing anything right does require extra work and money, so that’s just something you have to live with.

So if you do jump on the bandwagon, you can get Peel Away Ads right here for $27 through my affiliate link, or search Google because I’ve seen it listed for $17. I’m not sure what those people are doing that they can sell it for $17, but whatever.

Bookmark This Page or Email It To a Friend

You have a chance to win $100… if you entered the latest group writing project! If not, well, too bad. Better luck next time!

But you might want to drown your sorrows by reading some of these cool blog posts that should win something:

List Of Why Blogs Are A Female Gender by Domtan - Hahaha I was laughing just at the thought of this post. Number 1 in my book, for sure.

150 Funniest Resume Mistakes, Bloopers and Blunders Ever by Jacob Share - Funny stuff and it must have taken a long time to compile. BTW, I’m currently looking for someone fitting this description: “I am great with the pubic.”

10 Life Lessons Learned While Camping by Ad Tracker - This needs no explanation… anyone that has been camping knows that funny things are bound to happen. (And a perfectly toasted marshmallow is truly a thing of beauty!)

5 Things That I Believe To Be Lies by Krizza - Next to flat out humor, exposing lies is one of my hot spots.

I’d vote for more, but then these four wouldn’t feel so special!

OK OK… I’m lazy!

Bookmark This Page or Email It To a Friend

WidgetBucks has been in the headlines since the day of its launch. There was A LOT of positive press, especially in the beginning, from the cool looking widgets to the great payouts.

For example, Zac Johnson blogged about it and Sean of WidgetBucks even stopped by to comment. And as with any opportunity to make more money, John Chow promoted it.

A little bit of positive press too:

• WidgetBucks Top Performer (WidgetBucks generating some buzz about huge revenues)
• Earnings Update (Earnings screenshots… hmm I thought this was not allowed based on their terms…)

But the buzz couldn’t last forever…

Especially with a Google penalty!

So here’s the negativity:

• Screw you and your terms (WidgetBucks is way too greedy. They’ll probably claim rights to your first born child.)
• A 0.04% CTR is click fraud? (WidgetBucks is not your friend.)
• The truth comes out (straight from the horse’s mouth)
• WidgetBucks Is Run By Monkeys
• Widget Sucks (catchy domain name lol)

Did I mention the forums are going crazy about the suspensions? (i.e. WidgetBucks is scamming publishers out of lots of money)

• WidgetBucks takes back $1400
• No US traffic? You’re screwed.
• Which network sucks less?
• Their generic email about fraudulent activity.
• There’s no money in WidgetBucks
• You call this an explanation?
• Jumping through hoops
• They think my site is pr0n
• In the red

If you’re still hungry for more, try the WidgetBucks review blog. Or the official WidgetBucks blog, which is full of negative comments from publishers!

In light of all this, I think the best thing to do would be to click my affiliate link, join WidgetBucks, and hope that they screw you out of money so you can be part of all this fun! (which will only get more exciting when checks are supposed to go out…)

Bookmark This Page or Email It To a Friend

Adsense arbitrage is one of those dumb business ideas that won’t seem to go away. Kind of like tag cloud pages. And the “million dollar [insert noun here]” sites.

If you’ve been out of the loop for a while, Adsense arbitrage involves buying cheap clicks and sending them to a page full of Adsense ads, hoping to make more per click than you paid per click.

That covers the basics, and that’s all we need to cover today. That’s because I want to talk about that basic, core business model and why it’s flawed.

(Talking smack on Adsense arbitrage is nothing new, but this idea just popped into my head one day, so I just had to write it out.)

Think about this concept:

Even when you get past the scammy second-tier PPC sites and the crappy MFA pages… The business logic is crap!

See, advertisers don’t spend much per click on the content network; the search results are where it’s at. But unless you own Google.com, you’re stuck at the content network in the land of low-priced clicks…

It’s an uphill battle from the start.

But let’s say you get super lucky and do days of niche research and find a keyword that will pay you $5 per click on the content network.

Well, as soon as you send some non-converting clicks to that advertiser, they’ll notice the problem, and immediately decrease their content network bids. Then you’re done. Chances are your net loss is pretty bad, because you would have spent some money on all the testing.

And that is the outcome when you found your own niche. If you’re buying lists of hot niches, by the time you see the list, the niches are no longer profitable.

Try it again? Maybe there’s another good niche?

Quit while you’re ahead buddy!

Bookmark This Page or Email It To a Friend