Swapw - Making money smart

Transitions

2011-01-20T05:49:00.000-08:00

For those that have been following my making money blog, it's been a while since I have posted anything up on my blogspot account. After looking through a few old items in my old computer a lot of memories kinda came back....streams of emotion in some of the negative events came back as well even though I'm usually not a very emotional guy. Therefore, I've decided to quickly write an update to my loyal readers here in what has happened to Swapw even though I don't believe most that have followed me through the years are still around. Well, whatever haha....I'm posting it anyway.

I have gone through a tremendous amount of changes in my life since my last blog post and due to those changes in many ways, it hindered me from posting anything new on my money making blog. Since half of my mind just isn't even here, rather then posting something of a lesser quality like I have stressed over my blog; quality posts are the key into any blog's success.

The changes for the past few years included a life altering break-up, a depression, an outlook and mindset change, and a new direction in my ongoing ambition to take on new challenges in life.

For those that are interested in tracking my personal success in making money online, I am here to tell you that I personally believe I have achieved that so yes if you are a brand new blogger that's kinda pondering in this area there are definite opportunities here still.

I myself am now a web developer and at the same token still involved in several business ventures outside of it. For those that would like to still follow me in my blog post even though "money making tips" are just going to be a part of my new blog rather then a complete focus of it please check out my blog at my web development firm at Xquisite.net which the site should be up in the near future and at latest the beginning of Feb, 2011.

This post is probably the last post that I'll have up with blogspot on my personal money making blog here however I would like to end it on a good note. With all sincerity I wish every single one of you the best in all of your endeavors in life, when it comes to money making the question is NOT whether you can make money or not. But whether if your heart and desire is there. That doesn't just apply to making money online, I believe if you try your best you can make money in any field. FIN.

An overview on Directories

2008-12-03T22:53:00.000-08:00

Directory submissions are great ways to help with Search Engine Optimization efforts for a web site which in term helps a site's SERP. This is no news as it is known throughout most SEO communities. However, with all of these new and "so called" gurus claiming that they know anything about them they've also stirred up a lot of confusion behind the truth on "how" to do it correctly for it to help. I've also had my share of take on it previously with directory submission as well.

Through my video today I will explain to you what paid directories, regular directory submission, and directory submission services are in black and white. Without repeating myself from what's been said on the video, one thing to keep reminding yourself is that manual directory submission by yourself is always the best way to go.

Now, the next question that you may have is where or which directories do I submit? Although there are a ton of lists out there, here's a list to help you start:

http://www.best-web-directories.com/directory-list.htm

I'll keep the post short but just check out the video, I think it already explains a lot of it in depth. A lot of how you make money on the web has to do with how you optmize your site and make your audience king! Believe me, besides optimizing your site making audience king is one of the most simple concept in the book and sadly 80% of the web companies or sites are far worse in comparison with regular shops in both maintenance and customer service. - Swapw

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The Power of Link Baiting

2008-03-01T21:39:00.000-08:00

Link baiting is a very powerful technique a lot of people talk about over the internet. There are plenty of debates on how to use it and what it is being used for. A lot of so called gurus claimed to have used them in the past but I'll bet you that maybe 10% of them or less are actually successful in what they preach or know.

I have to say it first and foremost that link bait is something that I've used only a hand full of times, but from my studies I've found that they have a profound impact in helping and boosting a blog's popularity including traffic.

From my own experiments, I have found that writing against usually a mainstream view or a mainstream figure to be the most effective way in link baiting. Usually the author advocating an opposite view shows up first at your blog and with it also bringing in their supporters. Now the key here is to have a well constructed argument from your end. With a well constructed argument and a well thought out reasoning can a lot of times swayed the visitors that were going against you to be for you. On top of it, let's say that even if they all disagree with you now you got the attention of many others onto your website and blogs that links to you for the negative purpose of publicizing how wrong you are. For the purpose of link baiting, this would be considered a success. Although it may have a short term negative impact on your website or blog due to your opinion differences, but because of the links that's already in place with all these sites or blogs the benefits are huge. Most of it coming from indirect traffic, mostly visitors of their blog going onto yours. The traffic you'll receive can be exponential.

Now, I don't think link baiting is exactly ethical but the idea is to make sure that some type of buzz is being created for others to know and that your site or blog gets the attention of free press as a result others talking about it; it does exactly that. One precautionary measure that I would advice from my experience is to do some research before you jump into a heated debate. Without valid points to combat accusations from your opponents, you might just dig yourself into a rut. However, by defending yourself successfully would promote your reputation positively and the respects from the original advocates from the other side. It will give you a long lasting effect in traffic boost and buzz from time to time. And as we all know, traffic is the source of income in making money online and I wish the best success with your own results. -Swapw

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Page Rank vs SERP

2008-02-27T23:43:00.000-08:00

Google Page Rank or PR has been the long time standard for many site owners, bloggers, as well as webmasters along with SERP or Search Engine Result Page. Recently, a range coming from a lot of webmasters as well as bloggers are starting to state that the Google Page Rank is no longer important in the race to become the most popular site with traffic.

What I find it comical are some of the leading bloggers and webmasters all of a sudden, just overnight starts to pass to other people the lies that Google has changed its algorithm and that page rank is no longer of importance without any sort of proof. When a reputable blogger speaks up about an idea, the power that they have on many webmasters and blog community is that a lot of them will follow them without questioning them.

In many ways, page rank actually has to do with SERP. To rank well, you must build up your backlinks in quality. The same thing applies to PR but not as heavy. How well the content is being portrayed is very heavy on both PR and SERP so there are actually quite a bit of similarity here. Obviously there are other ways to promote both of these areas but the top two are the ones I've just mentioned. Thus, to say that to concentrate on one area and neglecting on another area is almost bogus since they are both connected with one another in various ways.

Yes, having a high SERP gives you a lot of free organic traffic from Google. However, to build a successful site and authority site is beyond traffic. I can almost bet that all of the reputable bloggers and webmasters who started all this talk is probably taking advantage of this opportunity to build up their PR while everyone else is overseeing it and come back several months later to say how important it is, blah blah blah.

Don't clog your judgment due to rumors or fabs, Google PR is a measuring stick. Remember, besides other bloggers there are also newbies that are searching for various blogs. For them, what Google determines as good is as authoritative as it gets! On the internet, traffic is big money. When two sites both have the same traffic and as good of a site with one another what makes a big difference is how each is being ranked with Google. If you have that edge then you are definitely winning the race.

Unless Google comes out and says that PR is no longer something they look at, you can bet on its confidence for other users. Take advantage of this situation and focus on your PR is the best way for your websites or blog to make money. Staying in the trend with others don't make you the big bucks, being on top of it will. - Swapw

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Dot Asia, an opportunity or a bust?

2008-02-25T21:37:00.000-08:00

If you haven't really heard about it yet, well the dot Asia extension is about to come out in a few weeks. You can see some of its release and details here:

https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/tlds/asia.asp?tld=asia&ci=10002

In short, similar to dot com, dot info, dot net, dot org, etc. Dot Asia is supposedly something that's specifically made for "Asians". My guesses in why they did that is they kinda figured that the rise of GOP in China would mean a new breed of internet users coming onto the internet. Not only will they come to the internet, the domains that will be acquired by the Chinese will be in growth exponentially. I believe that, however what I have a problem with is how much they've hyped the dot Asia deal to the effect that it'll be "THE" solution to it which is completely BS to me.

The idea behind obtaining good domains is in the fact that people sometimes don't go through search engines to type in a name of a domain. Some people actually make a living through utilizing these types of techniques by obtaining good named websites and let the profits from advertisements make them money without any work from their end ever with these sites. For example, I may want to search for computers and instead of going to Google for a search I might just type in computers dot com instead. If the domain is parked and I happen to click on an ad per say, both the company that parked the domain as well as the person who owns the domain make some profit as a result and they share it together.

This idea of making money in domain parking as I have addressed in my blog previously. (you can read them here) is all calculated through probabilities. In another words, the probabilities of you going into a site with the name computer dot com is a lot higher then a term that's unpopular like zyx dot com or something similar.

Dot Asia is just a solution these dot moguls came up with in hopes to lure audiences primarily from Asia I'm guessing to jump into the world of domains and owning a piece of internet property. Honestly, do you think that would be the case? Most of the sites outside of the us uses various different prefixes. China for example uses something in the nature of dot com / cn and Japan would be / jp in the back. To literally try to change all of their domains overnight is a joke. Not now, not ever. If it's hard to comprehend, just think of it as a dot North America. Do you think people from Mexico, Cuba, etc would just jump in?

I just don't believe on it and be real cautious if you are looking to jump on with the bandwagon. Honestly, Dot Asia is a bust in my humble opinion and in a way comical to say the least. -Swapw

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Blog commenting

2007-12-25T12:44:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone. Since it is Christmas day, I thought I post something special for everyone today and I'll be talking about Blog commenting today. If you're a blogger, you may have already realized that there has been an increase in the number of spam in your blogs. Mostly it's really just other people trying to post links of their website into yours. Why is that? And what for?

This whole buzz recently on the internet is really all due to the buzz that some of the webmasters started passing the words to others that "blog commenting" really helps optimize your search engine listings. Well, whoever started this saying really is not very knowledgeable about how SEO works. Most blogs, like blogger that I'm using and Wordpress uses a tag called the "no follow" tag embedded within its source code by default. What this does is no matter how many links that you have posted in your comment toward another blogger's comment box, the search engine will not pick it up! In another words, link it all you want it will not help your site in optimization a single bit.

Unless the blog that you comment do have that particular code & line changed or modified to make it where it is now a "do follow" tag, search engines will never pick up those comments ever! The next question that follows is, "how do I know if the blog has a no comment or a do comment tag to their blog?" The answer to that is, you simply don't know! Unless you dig through the blog where they actually have a post that states it or others that passes you the word that it has a "do follow" tag, it really is a hassle to just dig through a single blog just for the purpose of one link. Mean while, let's say that people have compiled a list of "do follow" blogs what do you think about it? Yes, everyone will comment on those blogs thus making it a link farm site. Google hates those type of sites and once they blacklist it not only will it not help your site but hurt your site because it is linked there.

Trust me guys, it's a lot more risk involved then positive impact toward your site or blog. Do your link building with other proven methods, it's probably the best way to achieve success for your sites!

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Choosing the right company for affiliate marketing

2007-12-01T02:01:00.000-08:00

For those of you that have been following my blog, you will notice that I've talked quite a bit about affiliate marketing recently. I do however want to provide a disclaimer beforehand and apologize about the video quality today due to the mic problems that I have been having. Without further due, let's jump right into the topic.

Now affiliate marketing has been the hot topic that I hear a lot of people talking about recently. Some have really made a real fortune out of it and some may get skeptical but I have personally witnessed a trusted guy I know making $12000 from it. Before you get too excited about it I want to say that it is a very lucrative field! Meaning that it will take some initial investment in it and I'm not talking about $50 or even $100. You'll probably be testing out with at least $200 or more to really see some results. I have to first say that it's not for everyone, after all there are only a few that's willing to invest $200 upfront without a guarantee return. However if you are willing to invest your time to test different campaigns out, the reward is handsome.

Let me just briefly explain how this process works. The chart below is something I've made really quickly to sum everything up in a nutshell.

Guy or company wanting to sell their product or service -> Affiliate companies -> Affiliate marketers

Each of the guys will get a split of the profit. So let's say that I'm a guy who wants to sell remote controls over the internet for $30 and however I don't have time to promote my product, I can go to a promotional companies such as an affiliate company. These companies are pretty much guys who claim that they can sell products for people for a living, in term they take a cut in the profit in every sale. So for example if I want $30 per remote control and the fee per sale was $15, then it's likely that I would like the sales price for these guys to sell them at $45.

So, in theory I will get $30 per sale on remote control and these affiliate companies will make $15 per sale at a sales price of $45 per remote control. How do these affiliate companies really make that $15 per sale? Obviously they in term hunt for potential affiliate marketers or current affiliate marketers like you and I to sale these products for them and in term split their $15 in profit with us. Now, how this split really varies between various affiliate companies. Some may split their profit with you more while others less, and there are some that just doesn't pay.

If you think you have the knowledge or is capable of selling on the internet for a product that you know really well about or the fact that you're just a good salesman, being an affiliate marketer is not a bad place to be. Having pushed sales as an affiliate marketer, below are a couple sites that I would recommend joining if you're thinking of jumping into this industry.

1. Azoogleads - These guys are probably one of the best affiliate marketing companies around in my opinion. Beside that they are one of the bigger affiliate companies around, they always pay on time! Now that may sound silly to some of you but some of these affiliate companies will actually delay payments to their affiliates. From my experience not only do Azoogle pay on time they are usually the ones offering one of the industries highest pay rate per product sales. The account rep they assign to you is usually very helpful and that's always a plus in this industry. Because if you have questions you can always call them personally or e-mail them for help. If you would like to try, here's the link to go to them

2. Clickbank - Similar to Azoogleads, Clickbank is a decent sized affiliate companies around. A lot of their products which they provide affiliate marketers to sale are usually niched toward web content based products such as Ebooks. Personally I'm not a big fan of Ebooks so I haven't given these guys a try for too long but I've heard great things about this company and their support so if you are interested in joining them, CLICK HERE!

3. Neverblueads - The guys from Neverblueads provide decent payouts similar to the top two that I've mentioned but one of the things that they specializes on is in incentivized offers. What it means is that the affiliate marketers can actually pay people to sign up for certain products. In another words affiliate marketers are able to pay users to sign up certain products to make money. Neverblueads has actually quite a bit of these products and if you are interested on incentivized offers, they're not a bad choice to go into. You can join them here!

4. Commission Junction - They are the biggest affiliate marketing companies around that I know of as to date. They promote for a lot of well known companies including Yahoo and Best Buy. They are one of the most stable companies around with a large selection of database in products that you can promote. The problem with them is that they often delay their payments due to product verification purposes. Although by nature, there's nothing wrong with this process I have talked to some folks who have had problems with them in the past on payments. I wouldn't personally recommend them because of my lack of experiences with their products. However if you prefer joining this industry with one of the biggest guys around, they will be your go to guy. You can join them here!

We'll talk about simple promotional ideas some other time, but why don't you guys check these affiliate companies out? By joining a good affiliate company makes it a good start in your journey onto affiliate marketing. With smart promotion, that's how you make money smart. -Swapw

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Widgetbucks, a scam to avoid!

2007-11-10T11:50:00.000-08:00

I don't understand why, I have noticed that a lot of reputable bloggers are all jumping into promoting Widgetbucks before actually reviewing the product in its entirety including Problogger Darren Rowse. I am a bit sick and tired of these reputable bloggers that are just trying to suck money out of their visitors by giving false or untested reviews of products so visitors are signing up under their affiliate link for them to earn a few bucks.

Bad take on their end to sacrifice reputation for a quick buck or two. What I personally like to do is actually use the product first before promoting them, so here's my honest review of Widgetbucks.

In short, I don't feel that they are a legitimate company and they do seem to fall under the categories of what I called a scam. At its first looks, I have noticed that there are claims by Widgetbucks that they are actually comparable to Google Adsense. Now, if anyone were to tell you that they are at par with Google Adsense this is definitely a red flag!! It's like a small fish saying that I eat sharks along with us humans.

With my pre-judgments aside, I have went ahead and test them out by implementing their widget onto my website. After a few days later I have realized that not one, not two, "ALL" of their ads are the same. Technical knowledge aside, are you interested in the same advertisements over and over? Even if you were interested at it the first time, are you interested in it at a second time? Chances are the answer is no. It is clearly reflective on the click rates of my experiment as well. The original advertisement that I was getting a 1-2% click rate now drops down to less then 1%.

Now waiting for a few additional weeks, I have noticed that Widgetbucks practice what is known as backdating. Something that is prohibited by Wallstreet which has gotten a lot of stock brokers locked up in jail and Widgetbucks is doing the exact same thing. Not only did they reduce my rate per click to 30% of the original pay rate, they have backdated all of my earnings from the first day that I have signed up with them. This is fraud!!!

To test out their customer service, I have went ahead and called the customer service line which promises to return all requests within 24 hours. Not only did I not get a response, after 48 hours there's no call no e-mail from them. What this has demonstrated to me is that this is another program which will turn out to be something scam oriented with red flags signaled everywhere. So if you are hyped to join Widgetbucks because of bloggers or webmasters wanting to join their affiliate links, be careful out there. Making money smart sometimes doesn't mean jumping on the bandwagon first but to jump in at the right timing! -Swapw

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Surveying your visitors

2007-11-03T15:51:00.000-07:00

A lot of times I see SEO or Online Money Making Bloggers keep telling people to focus in advertisement of some sort as an effective way to increase traffic, this is great and all but a lot of times they fail to point out way to retain your traffic which is really the heart of the problem.

Advertisements get you the traffic but to keep the traffic that has came to your site is how well you retain and understand your visitors. For example, when you purchase a computer such as Dell obviously the functionality and how well Dell present its computers to you is very important in making your final decision. However, it is how Dell service you afterwards that retain you as a customer of a lifetime not more advertisements. Let's just say that their customer service is horrible, do you think anyone would go back to Dell although new and fancier advertisements are being presented? Most likely not.

If you consistently get new traffic from different venues of promoting your site, imagine the magnitude of loyal visitors if you keep them all happy? I can tell you as an experienced webmaster that the growth is exponential. Now the next question that you may have in your mind is how do you keep your current visitors happy? The answer to that is simply survey or ask your visitors! You might think, why should I ask my visitors or why would your visitors help you right? Surprisingly enough, from my personal experience visitors are quite informative in telling you exactly what they want and how they want it if you just take the time to ask. An example of a simple survey would be, "what would you prefer to see on my website?" then you offer them different choices that you have in mind and leave the last option up to them to provide a feedback to. Put the survey out for let's say a month, it's probably a good amount of time and most of your loyal readers have probably seen or given you inputs then. Just by looking at the result you can see exactly what's needed to be done in terms of your focus or the needs your visitors coming to your website.

Believe me guys, this advise is golden. A survey takes you only 5 minutes to make, but the impact can fair well steer your site's future as well as improvements based on suggestions directly from your visitors. Making money online a lot of times it is similar to your real life businesses, if you understand your visitors better then your competitors you would then leap out as the leader of the pack instead of a follower or a copy cat. -Swapw

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How to deal with online bullies?

2007-10-11T20:29:00.001-07:00

Imagine walking into a forum that others have spoke about as being popular in the topic of your interest as a newbie, after your first question or post on the forum a guy usually with 100000 posts flames (demeaning words) you on the forum right away after your first post. How do you feel?

All of us are newbies at one point, whether it is in a certain field, work, or life. Even in the world of money making which is something I blog about, the same idea applies. Somehow, somewhere, there are always ones that bullies people around. What is the reason behind it? Usually it is caused by a lack of self confidence, a bad day, or to proof that they are better.

What do you do when you are faced in such circumstances? Simple, ignore and acknowledge authorities when applicable. These bullies thrive when others are giving them a reaction they want, why should you fall victim of it? If it is in a forum, heck jump to a new thread and ignore their accusations. Acknowledge a moderator of such circumstance and if repeatedly done in such fashion the moderator will ban them without you needing to do a thing. Some may say, let's just go head on! Well, the results are often times mixed. If the guy speaking it in the forum has 100000 posts like I said earlier, they probably have others that they are familiar with that will stick around by their side within the forum so as a newbie it's probably best not to argue with them. Plus, what result does it bring? Nothing! Let's say that you win the argument, so what? They can start another thread and do the same thing. Don't ever loose your cool, because once you do you loose all respects from others.

Let's change the environment a little bit. What if it is done on your blog? What I like to do personally is that I like to screen my comments and delete anything that is malicious or spam. If you are using Wordpress, then use spam plugins (there are many of them) to fend off spams. Whenever a blog gets popular, there are always spammers or others that is jealous of your success or just want to link bait. Don't fall for it and keep things clean and professional! Remember, your blog or forum's authority is built based on how you handle or deal with certain type of events. If we are so stuck with what others think about us there will never be an end! -Swapw

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Onlinecasinobluebook Reviewed

2007-10-11T19:30:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Reviewme, this will be a sponsored review to a site called Onlinecasinobluebook.com.
Gambling has always been looked at as the thing to do in Vegas and it is not until recently that gambling is introduced onto the internet. Thanks to the heavy broadcasting over media, gambling has really gotten really popularized is now called as a "sport".

As a result, more and more gambling sites are surfacing onto the internet starting from the big sites such as Fulltiltpoker.com all the way down to small poker sites which you have never heard about. Now, whether you are interested in gambling how do you know which site to start looking into? Onlinecasinobluebook offer exactly that. From reviews of various casino sites all the way down to how to play a certain type of game they have it all. Although from the first look at the website, it does seem like it needs a lot of work at its site designs in competition with its competitors the content is pretty well written. Let's look at the game "black jack" for example:

"Its important to re mine your self that blackjack is between the player and the casino. The other players at the table can not affect the outcome of your play.
Also, there are no plays that are left to the dealer, all regulations of play are already predetermined by the online casino."

Which gambling sites tells you that type of information? All of the casino's incite is to get a hold of your money and take as much money away from you as possible. I really think the information that Onlinecasinobluebook has to offer is actually something genuine and that's not to say that they actually offer support at the bottom of their page? Honestly, which gambling site offers support for gamblers? I can honestly say only a hand full of them does because it is simply not to their interest to do so.

Whether you are a veteran gambler or just somebody that's interested to check out online gambling in this field why not play a few hands with their promo? Most of these casinos offer $50 to up to $200 just to join and it doesn't hurt to try out your luck once or twice right? Worst comes to worse, you lose them and you call it quits but if you win the upside is obviously towards your favor. I would say look at it as a few free lotto tickets, don't hurt right? -Swapw

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Be weary of the idea behind incentivized links

2007-10-07T02:35:00.000-07:00

You may have hear it here and there, get links, get lots of links to your website. By getting links, it is the solution to your website problem. Well, what people are saying is not a myth according to my experience and I believe that they are true.

By getting links that are related to your blog it will help boost your blog or site authority for search engines. By having relevant and related content with each other, each link provides a small representation of the legitimacy of your website to search engines that it is not a spam. On top it, the site traffic can also be exchanged with one another in a natural fashion therefore the both of your site will benefit as a result. Whether the links is in relations to directory or sites, that doesn't really matter and the idea behind it is as long as it is done in a natural fashion then it is all good and dandy.

The problem hits when people start to incentivize others to provide them with a link in hopes to jump start their blog. Now, we all know as a rule of thumb that natural links are the best and anything that's unnatural is not. Google has been keeping quiet about the way their algoirthem works for sometime and the actions they will take against others who are incentivizing others to gain traffic. I don't blame them, afterall they are the biggest search engine on the web today. However, through Google's actions by removing one of my favorite blogger John Chow of its' own website name under its search, it has definitely shaken the idea of incentivizing your traffic.

Now, if John Chow's site was an isolated incident we can say okay he's pushing the link back a little bit too much therefore he got the Google judge to rule against him. However, I have been keeping an eye on Google and it seems like a lot of "paid" directories have been heavily penalized as well. Starting from a decrease in SERPS all the way to some actually getting de-listed from Google. What does this all mean? In simple terms, the search terms for these high page ranking sites are disappearing and where do I think this is heading? Yes, incentivized and paid links on individual sites!!

Here's a quick video directly from Google which affirms my points. Matt Cutts, the spokesman from Google tells webmasters that "Buying links is outside of our (Google) guidelines".

Ok, so is it the end of the world if you have a few paid links? Well, no but keep it real low and concentrate building up your site through natural links. And for those of us that did not incentivize links or pay any links, great! Afterall, cutting corners gets you nowhere even on the web. Nothing is better then doing everything the natural way right? -Swapw

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Fighting back against cyber crime

2007-09-16T00:41:00.000-07:00

So you've fallen victim to an internet crime, what should you do? Surprisingly, most people from the internet shy away from actually taking any action and most of the time it's due to laziness or you just don't know where to go for help. Others just feel it's none personal connection to the internet itself and therefore forget the scam or just call it off.

If you were mugged by someone from the street for $200 or got your favorite watch stolen, I bet you are really mad and you will most likely chase the guy or the situation down until it is rightfully resolved. Some of us will even chase after the crook although he or she has a weapon on their hand, why? Because these are all actions that is very visible. Yet, over the internet I find it very often that people will just ignore or just take it as a loss if they were ever scammed online. Because most of the time or I dare to say almost all the time, this is the very reason that scams on the internet thrive today and yet very little or no one has really stood up to it.

The good news is that there are actually quite a bit of resources for you out there on the net to fight against infringement of content or intellectual property. One of the biggest search engine out there Google actually has taken some strong steps toward it. So fellas, if you find yourself in trouble report them to Google! Especially if you are a Blogger user like myself, Google will terminate any account that it finds guilty of infringes documents or content that is copyrighted. Google has had stated with specific clauses to fight against Blogger infringement which helps us fellow Bloggers. That's not to mention that if you're not a Blogger that you are out of luck. If you find yourself in trouble with infringement of your product you can still report them to Google! Now what I like about this link I will provide you is that Google will ban infringing parties after it is being done repeatedly. Now the ban is not something to temper with, unlike just an Adsense account ban which the user can still use their gmail and other functions with Google. This ban is permanent with all functions with Google. Here's the link to Digital Millennium Copyright Act provided by Google. Here's the link!

Some of you may think it's a lot of hassle, but it's really not that hard at all! The steps are simple. What you need to do is type up a brief letter to Google explaining the permanent link you have placed for your content as well as the content being infringed upon. Write it like you would to the court and identify your name, address, etc. and send it to:

Google, Inc.
Attn: Google Legal Support
DMCA Counter Notification
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043

Now what happens here is Google will note the account in their database & forward the info to a third party called Chilling Effect and they will let the owner be aware of the situation and the complaint will go in public circulation anonymously through publication. Now you might think what does a publication do right? I'm with you there completely! Now, the deal is this. If a guy is infringing just like a post that you have written, chances are they are probably infringing others as well. Report it to Google enough, their account will be banned from Google and that is the idea behind it. Now worse comes to worse, sue the guy in small claims court. As Americans, we get into lawsuits at least once in our lifetime so why would we hold back with issues on the internet? Do what you would in a real life situation.

An alternative that you can also look into is simply report them to the FBI. Click here for the link. Give cops a call and let the FBI handle the jerk. Remember, most of these criminals hide behind their computer tempering with different IPs to cloak themselves so be sure to do your research before you get too blown away. Catching these criminals takes one at a time, if you stop infringement it takes someone to step up against them one at a time. Good luck! -Swapw

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Dangers of international site purchase

2007-09-14T04:40:00.000-07:00

Since my previous post about owning a website over the internet, I have been seeing a shift in the growing number of people eyeballing the endless possibilities of the internet in recent months. With the internet still having plenty of unexplored possibilities, it is also a growing haven for the amount of scams. Since everything about owning a piece of web is still relatively new, it is also a place very vulnerable to scams as well.

I myself will step up and say that I had almost became one of the victims and I am glad that the whole crazy merry go round is finally coming to a close with minimal loss. It was a very clear lesson to me and I felt it was important to share with all of my readers as well. Yes, I have been gone for sometime from the blog world but throughout the past month I have really learned a lot about owning a piece of web. Personally I haven't found much information about it throughout the web and I learned it the hard way. For you guys, you are more fortunate because here's a post for all the people looking for some advice on this topic from my personal experience.

Without further due, let's jump into the lesson. Remember my previous post about how to purchase a website? If you haven't, here's the post. So you have done all the preventive measures before buying a site, now does the geographic region of the site has anything to do with the results?

Sure it does! Not only does it have to do with the result of the website itself, it is the very heart for any possible expansion as well. Let's say you live in the US and you are looking into buying a website that is related to shoes located in Asia which claims to make a lot of money per month through different avenues of advertising and let's say in all the best case scenarios that they are all true, what will happen after you purchase the site? With all the right tools, of course you can promote to the same audience. But what if there are changes in habit on the visitors demographically that are coming to your site? You and I are most likely not be familiar with the changes and even if we hear about it here in the US of things happening in Asia it is also hard to comprehend with a mind of an American. This is just one of the many realistic scenarios that you have to think about prior, in consideration to value a site of its or worth. On sites that are purchased internationally, you are also heavily reliant on the original owner of the site in terms of providing accurate maintenance and promotional strategy.

Personally I have found international communications to be fairly difficult even though most of the time we are speaking in English. The phrases and understanding is usually different and this can cause many unnecessary miscommunication or misunderstanding in many cases. It is also important also consider the problem in the aspect of support as well. What if the support from the seller drops or the fact that he or she decides to terminate any communications with you, "the buyer" what type of laws are there governing that? Like international crime and scams with lotto, cases like these are very difficult for the police to track down because most instances people provide fake names or addresses.

Lastly, within its transition in payment and domain. Again, all it takes is one party to not have merit than the other party is in deep trouble. Not only is the wire none refundable, if legal disputes arise the police is most likely not going to have power to do much. After all, it's not just a local case but an international case and any cases revolve internationally requires both police force to cooperate with each other.

Unless you have a good understanding of the backgrounds of countries which the site originate as well as how to grow it with the local audience, I would not recommend buying sites internationally. Any site purchased whether it's locally or internationally requires a lot of thought placed before making a final decision. Sure there are sites that are definitely attractive and well maintained from different countries, be sure to consider its potential consequences before making the right decision for yourself. Owning a site requires a lot of care and attention, without them it is like any business without traffic people and it will eventually die out. Making money smart comes with first making the right decision, remember that! -Swapw

swapw making+money+smart blog+make+money purchase+website online+business,

Auctionads

2007-08-22T14:31:00.000-07:00

Many of you may heard about Auctionads, but do you know what Auctionads is and what it does? Auctionads is basically an affiliate marketing site for Ebay. What they do is they utilize the API from Ebay and turn it into very nice and pleasant looking ads for you to display on your site.
After you copy and paste the codes which Auctionads give you, you're live with their ads! So, let's say that you have chose to display ads about kids in your website which happens to also talk about kid related topics, the ad will display listings from Ebay based on products that are categorized with the word "kids" and display them onto your website. The looks of the ad itself is a combination of the pictures from the acutal auctioned item which the owner is selling and the name of the item which is displayed beneath the picture.

What happens is when a visitor visits these ads coming from your site and they bid and wins the product, you will then get a cut of the profit from Auctionads. Now, this part is actually not easy. Just think about how many times have you actually bid on a product but just to gave up later due to the amount of bids involved for the item? What I have found to be a more effective way to promote Ebay goods is to target your products that are cheap and is in high popularity with the general public. Personally, I have found goods that range between $0-$20 performs the best from my own experience. I think the reason behind it is that most of us don't mind spending a buck or two on a few items and most of the time, the item isn't expensive enough to really bother us at all. However, once the price is hiked up we tend to shy away or the interest level becomes target oriented. It is like buying an ice cream in the street for $3.50, sure it's more expensive but most of people would not feel uncomfortable with the price knowing that it's more expensive because they expected it. If the scenario switches to a LCD TV that cost $500, you would think twice about buying it and most of the time compare prices with other places or even brands of TV that's available for that price range.

I have heard success stories about people utilizing Auctionads on an investment property or related site. Although the visitors in this case is being advertised properties that are available to be purchased in a much higher price, but most of the time these visitors are injected with the idea that it's a smart investment therefore they are more prone to do so. I have not personally tested this concept but I can definitely see it having potentials of becoming successful if it is properly marketed.

Now, the most important part of today's post. The payout! How much do you get paid by Auctionads? Well, you get paid 75% of the revenue that Ebay makes and not the ended auction price! So really, it isn't that much per listing. The good news is that their minimum payout is $10 so it's one tenth of Google Adsense. Personally I make about $150 with Auctionads per month in one of my most traffic site, so I think it's not too bad. So check them out and see how it performs for you. -Swapw

affiliate affiliate+marketing swapw making+money+smart

Google Referral Ads

2007-08-17T23:28:00.000-07:00

Google has newly introduced an ad system called Referral Ads under Adsense. From its first view, it's quite clear that it's an attempt by Google to poke into the affiliate marketing niche which has already been congested with many other competing companies. Why? Because affiliate marketing is actually one of the hottest segment over the web today.

How Referral Ads work is pretty simple. Basically like the regular Google Adsense ads, referral ads display items which you the owner of site select to display. For example if your website is about bike and you prefer displaying ads about bikes they will display exactly ads for that and nothing else. It also provides you the option to display various other ads and you the owner of the site can let referral ads autopick as to which ads "convert" the best. When I say the word convert, I mean a customer either signing up for a product or buying it. This term is defined differently with various types of advertisers, it just depends. The payout is based on the amount of visitors that actually buys the product that your site is advertising through referral ads, whenever a customer buys something you get paid a certain percentage as the result.

Now imagine if a visitor that goes to the ad displayed on your site and buys a tv and let's just hypothetically say that the payout is 3% and the TV is $300 you have just earned $9 right on the spot. Instead of you getting paid on pennies on the dollar per click with regular Adsense this program seems to be paying a lot more and in many ways better in comparison right? WRONG! Dead wrong and the here's the reason why. With your regular Adsense you get paid per click from your visitors going to the advertiser, however with referral ads you don't get paid for that and that is a very big deal!

Now, let's do some math together. How much are you currently getting your clicks with Google Adsense? If you blend in your ads and optimize it, you are probably sitting at 1-2% tops. The percentage is awfully low. From these percentage of people, how many of them do you think would actually buy something or sign up with someone? Extremely low and you're looking at something close to 1% but less than that. In another words, every 1000 visitors that come to your site 10 visitors will visit your ad and close to none will sign up. To get any sign up with our math, we are looking at at least 10000 visitors.

I have tested referral ads in one of the site that own that is filled with visitors. You are probably curious as to the results right? Out of 9000 unique visitors in the day that I've tested it, only 9 people have actually "clicked" on the ads and obviously no conversions. If you are considering using referral ads, I would suggest looking elsewhere to make your money online! -Swapw

google+adsense advertisement swapw make+money+online making+money+smart

Stumbleupon

2007-08-15T00:59:00.000-07:00

What's Stumbleupon? Stumbleupon is a popular social web site that has a combined idea of Digg and Myspace. Not only will users be able to customize their own spot in Stumbleupon their most fascinating feature to "stumble" really has caused a lot of buzz.

Seems like a lot of web gurus have already been talking about them for sometime but I thought I take sometime to dig into them today for you in my personal experience and why I really think they're a great way to drive your traffic. Let's first look at one of their most unique features which they offer is called "stumble". What is stumble? It's kinda like a voting system where users vote for each other on sites or pages and even images which they like throughout the net. Like many other sites that provides users to vote each other Stumbleupon pushes the most voted or popular page in the front page of their website. Obviously as you know, any content that sits on the front page gets viewed by everyone that visits simply because they are the first thing that you see when you come into a site.

How do you "stumble?" Stumbleupon requires users to first download a "stumble" tool which is just another tab on the already cluttered navigation bar which you'll have to install. This is actually the most annoying part for any internet users but if you want to get involved Stumbling others I guess you don't have much choice. The good news is that you can customize the icons being displayed so you can minimize the buttons that you'll have to place in your navigation bar with only the necessities so it won't clog up more spaces then it actually needs. To Stumble on someone's page you have to click on the hands up hand which says "I like it!". By doing so, you have just stumbled on a page or gave the page a vote. Obviously if you don't like a page you can just give that page a hands down which will push the page further back. With this technique you can do it on both the pages you enjoy and the images you enjoy as well. Stumbleupon also offers a regular widget similar to Digg and that just simply enable you to have that function within a post for others to Stumble you as well.

Stumbleupon is currently testing their video aspects of the feature and just imagine if it's available on how amazing it would be for video sites like myself to have it being Stumbledupon? Now just get your buddies to start stumbling one another and like I said previously the more buzz you create the more opportunities it will be for you to appear on the front page of Stumbleupon. Before you run out and start going crazy to have others Stumble be sure to first survey the audiences of your niche. Currently, most users of Stumbleupon are quite young so if you are aiming at marketing products for an older group of audience, this is probably not the best idea.

Any site like I've said it many times are as good as the visitors that do come, so if your site is well made without visitors go and start stumbling!! The more visitors, the more money you make. That's the game of the internet and that's how you make money smart with advertisements, etc. The best part of having a blog is that it's all free from our end! -Swapw

social+bookmark swapw making+money+smart blog+make+money traffic

A glimpse in the life of Swapw

2007-08-06T13:27:00.000-07:00

Part 1 of 2

Part 2 of 2

These videos were filmed at a farewell party for one of my best friends. These video you will see the real me in action in a rare glimpse. Of course, Swapw whoops ass not only in his blog to making money smart he also wins in wii. -Swapw

swapw making+money+smart

Online payment services

2007-08-06T02:54:00.000-07:00

As more and more people shop and engage with one another over the internet, the options and availability of online payment services are becoming more prevalent. Besides just the regular payment services in your local currency, there are also several "online currencies" available as well. Which one of the service should you be using?

For those of you that have been reading my blog, you would know that I am not a very big fan of online currencies in general. A short explanation to those of you who has not read my post in the past, I'm simply not a big fan of anything that's not established or recognized globally. Because online currencies have yet to be recognized by countries globally, therefore any unethical actions taken by the online currency company itself is hard to be seriously examined or regulated. I'm not saying they are not legitimized companies, however the risks are there and I will not take it nor recommend my readers to take it. Look at it as monopoly money, would you seriously use it as real money? Probably not.

Moving forth to general online payment services, including big names like Paypal are great ways for buyers to purchase goods in a secure manner. Especially with Ebay products, Paypal has inplaced with a program of buyer's protection which is great for buyers like you and I. For general payment services where you deal directly with a company, they are definitely a great company to use.

Now, here comes the tricky part. How do you pay someone within the internet? There has been a growing number of forums out there today. Many of them provide users a platform to exchange, buy, or sell services and goods within one another. Which payment services should you use? Many of the online payment companies out there do not provide protection to these types of transactions. Why you ask? The reason is because that it's really difficult to discern who's right and wrong. Not online is there a lack of evidence, most of these transactions are verbal. Not only is it only difficult for these online payment companies to discern, it also takes a lot of time involvement as well. There can be numerous exchanges without much results and to read them in a thorough manner, it can take hours at times depending on the amount of exchange and the dispute.

So, what service should you use in these types of exchanges when you deal with someone over the internet in any number of exchanges? I would personally recommend checking out Escrow.com. Escrow.com helps both buyers and sellers deal with that exact problem that I've just mentioned. They provide a platform acting as the third party bank which both parties are involved. After a certain agreements have been set and completed, Escrow.com then releases the correct funds to the right party. The service fee is not cheap, however when the amount of money gets involved are higher I definitely believe its significance and role becomes huge. I have actually used Escrow.com a few times and I would highly recommend it to everyone out there. -Swapw

swapw making+money+smart online+business

The importance of ghost bloggers

2007-07-31T19:18:00.000-07:00

Ghost bloggers are very crucial and important to the survival of blogs believe it or not. Many times we have actually overlook their importance and blogging becomes a burden over a period of time. Before I speak further about ghost bloggers, let me just first explain to you what they are first.

Ghost bloggers are also known as guest bloggers, what they simply do is basically blog for you! After many months of blogging, many bloggers get tired, bored or just burned out. Better yet, what if you have to go on a vocation with the family or with friends? What happens to your blog? Most of the time, the blog will get neglected and as we all know anything that's neglected will die out in traffic eventually.

So what you do is talk to some of the bloggers that you know, enjoy, or trust and provide them the opportunity to blog for you. Obviously, you should find someone who blogs about the same subject as you so you can keep your blog content consistent. For example in my case, I blog about money so I would find someone who also blogs about money. You ask, why would anyone do that right? To be honest with you, there are actually quite a few bloggers out there that are willing to do so. First, if they are an experienced blogger that's looking to expand their readership by blogging for someone else they can advertise about themselves within the post as well. That way, it will provide them with a free backlink or in another words free advertisement to their blog. Vice versa, if you are a beginner blogger and a more advanced blogger is willing to blog for you it's also a good way to see the difference in their writing style. It is most likely that their writing styles are in high demand and thus the success of their blogs. Take it as a free lesson for you from them indirectly.

Another way to grab a ghost blogger besides asking bloggers to do it for you is to simply pay the blogger to do the job! If you simply don't have time, get someone to do so by paying them. Nothing gets a guy to motivate more then money, so this is quite self explanatory. However, I've seen instances where blogs are actually completely done by ghost bloggers which doesn't seem to make sense because why would you pay someone to blog for you everyday? Seems to be kind of foolish if you put the amounts of money that the blog is making per day versus hiring someone to blog for you. Obviously if your blog has a ton of readers, then that's a different story. It's pretty gray in the world of blogging to have someone else blog for you everyday and I would shy away from it as much as possible. Interesting enough, there are actually several people who have decided to make this into a little business which I've seen.

The bottom line is this, it's crucial not to neglect your blog! I was busy dealing with several ventures that I am involved with recently thus the neglect in my blog and I can definitely see the difference in performance has drastically declined. Try a ghost blogger next time if you are busy so you don't get burned out from blogging. After all, it should be something that's fun and enjoyable right? -Swapw

swapw making+money+smart blog Paid+to+blog

Automated Adsense blogs, does it work?

2007-07-26T20:21:00.000-07:00

There has been a growing number of people selling the idea of so called "automated Adsense" blogs. The basic concept behind these is quite simple. What is being sold is pretty much a blog used purely for Adsense purposes. The contents itself is aggregated from various sites depending on topic so indirectly it fools Google, Yahoo and other major search engines into thinking that it is just a blog like the rest of us who writes diligently. The biggest difference is obviously that the content itself is not unique and is usually taken from news resources and displayed into the blog site itself. So what these sellers sell is that the more you buy, the chances of visitors stumbling upon your blog or network of blogs is higher thus providing you a greater return of what we know as Adsense. Through today's video I will provide you some of my opinions about this concept in whether it works or not.

Let's hypothetically say that you have stumbled onto a site like this, what would you do? Chances are that you will hit the "X" button a lot faster then anyone else. Like a junk site, the visitor knows that he or she has stumbled into something that's useful or junk. To get a grasp of consistency in any type of ad agency, the golden rule to remember always is the retain your traffic. Instead of showering them with junk which shuns all of them away, think more like how you can provide something that they are looking for exactly?! With these type of blogs, they provide only irrelevant information which almost all visitors will never come back again. So let's say even if you market well on these websites and that you get a lot of traffic, the money would come at most the first day or two and spiral down to the tubes. It's good to have multiple number of blogs, but if you can't maintain them it is probably best to just do what you can like myself of just maintaining one blog. No one wants to visit a blog with no updates, so yes there are no shortcuts around it.

If you want some serious residual income, do it the safe and long way. Yes it can be a pain sometimes and at times very time consuming but it's all worth it once you get to the top of the hill. Best of luck with all of your blog endeavors! -Swapw

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America's Got Talent - Kashif

2007-07-21T10:43:00.000-07:00

I have been watching America's Got Talent for sometime and I am not too familiar with dances from Pakistan, but does this seem familiar for those of you from that region? This is got to be the funniest dance ever. From the outset it looks horrible, but in some ways I think it's very unique in comparison to our dances here in the States. -Swapw

swapw video

Yahoo Publisher versus Google Adsense

2007-07-20T13:56:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've blogged, just to give you guys some clue about what's been going on in my life is pretty much projects after projects. I've personally acquired a few sites recently and I thought it be a good idea to kind of test and play around with it. Therefore I have been spending quite a bit of time on them as well as implementing some of the things that I've learned over time.

I thought I share with you guys something that I hear a lot of debates and buzz about and that is the whole ordeal with Yahoo Publisher versus Google Adsense. It's really not that complicated actually, basically Yahoo Publisher is Yahoo's version of Adsense to really sum it up. You can check out my video today to see some of what I think and feel about both Google Adsense and Yahoo Publisher but if you don't feel like watching me talk through Youtube, read on.

Google Adsense is undoubtedly the number one advertiser over the internet. No one will dispute its' presence and influence throughout the whole advertising industry. In terms of pay, they fluctuates upon the topic that you blog or write about and obviously the more popular topic will get you less click per advertisement versus a topic hardly spoken a higher share of click per advertisement or CPA. The real advantage of Google Adsense is their variety of ads that are available for the public to use including text ads which have yet to be seen from their competitors surprisingly. The idea is not unique that it's been around for some time, but it's success is undoubtedly indisputable. Most people still uses Adsense as their primary source of advertising and if you're looking for something that's proven for many as well as its availability of help out there, then Adsense is the way to go.

Yahoo Publisher is a little bit different to the extent that they're one of the newest advertisers on the block. The general format is actually very similar to Google Adsense in what they have to offer. The commonly used leader boards, box, etc are just some of things that's available with Yahoo Publisher. Yahoo Publisher does in many cases pay a lot higher then Google Adsense when it comes down to advertising similar topics. Yahoo publisher does however offer targeted ads. What this means is that you can set it where only a certain type of ads show up in your site. From my personal experience however I don't find this functionality to be quite useful for the topic which I place it with. This could be due to the age of Yahoo Publisher's existence as well as its awareness around the web.

In conclusion, I would say if you know what optimal ad placements to maintain the high CPA which involves ads that Yahoo Publisher has to offer then go with Yahoo Publisher by all means to maximize your earnings. However, if you are looking for something solid which many others do blog and talk about at a regular basis then stick with Google Adsense. It'll take time but take some time and test them out to see which one out of the two makes you the most money is how you make money smart. Last but not least, you can use only one of the two advertisers between Yahoo Publisher or Google Adsense. It's against their TOS and the reason and logic behind them is simple, they are competitors against one another! -Swapw

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An alternative besides DiGG, Netscape

2007-07-14T11:44:00.000-07:00

Social bookmarking is something that most of us get involved with nowadays if you are a blogger. Backtracking myself a little bit, let me first explain to you what a social bookmarking is. A social bookmarking is basically where all the bloggers chunk up in groups to unify themselves therefore visitors of their websites may spread to other bloggers and in the end it increases exposures to everyone that is involved in the social network. You can look at it in similarity to electronics section of Wal-mart, instead of selling just one brand of electronic, there are varieties of electronics for the customers to select thus brings in more audience and exposure.

Out of all the social bookmarking websites, one of the most well known website out there is named DiGG. Why DiGG? Well, beyond just being a place where it gathers bloggers it provides an additional "voting system" for its visitors. In another words, not only will the visitors get to view the blogs in that website it also gets to vote who's got a better blog or story as well. With more votes on the story the better chance it has to get into the front page of DiGG, thus it creates a unforeseen incentive for bloggers to blog better so they can get into the front page of their website. Partially because of pride, partially because it provides maximum exposure for the blogger since that's the reason why they've joined such community in the first place.

Well, you can kinda see where this is going. With more community members come with people that will abuse the idea. Before I get into it, can you think of any ideas to abuse it? The idea is not too complicated and that is to abuse Digg's system of voting for a story. What people end up doing is they've started paying people to vote for their article and thus creating a lot of artificial votes and corrupting the sites' original intent. The front page articles at Digg becomes less quality and basically destroys the system. So, instead of camping with DiGG there's another site which I would like to introduce and that's Netscape. Surprising enough, I don't hear many people talking about it and it is definitely a hidden gem.

Netscape as a site has been around for ages from being an internet browser almost 15 years ago to now a site very similar to Digg. The biggest difference between the two is that with Netscape, you'll have to submit your stories to them instead of installing a widget in your website which others vote on instead. It is very different then Digg in its limiting method for article submissions. Through this limitation however, it allows Netscape to monitor articles that are being submitted and voted thus provide a stronger policing system to prevent abuse. Netscape also provides another type of policing system which allows users to report abuse on the articles or potential abusive activities posted by the user. This is great because no one wants to see others get ahead of them with methods of cheating when they've spent all day writing one thus it provides benefit to those who report abuse. At the end of the day when it comes down to abuse, anyone can always go around it if they really really try in any type of system in place. However, in comparison with other social bookmarking websites I definitely think Netscape has one of the best systems out by far to monitor articles. It has a lot of potentials and it is definitely not a place where you should miss to get your blog exposed. -Swapw

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Importance of a website design

2007-07-12T16:02:00.001-07:00

For some of us, we did all the right things that others have told us; having our own unique content, placing ads, and done all the things that others have told us but we still don't see any results from our hard work through the number of visitors or our monetary income that is generated from our web site. What's wrong here?

You would be surprised at how basic these problems can be, but many times it's really easy for you and I to overlook into the nature of our website and how it is being designed. I will be explaining about it through my video today. Design is very important to the life of a website. Take my own website for example. For those of you that has been following my posts since the beginning you would know that I have made a lot of changes throughout the past few months in my own website. From settling in the beginning with just a very standardized template offered by Blogger to something more personally designed today. The contents remain the same, but the results and difference are clearly astounding based on templates alone.

Is the look of your website dull? Is your website a bit overcrowded? Are you placing too many ads or banners in your website? Or are the spacings just a little bit off? As little of an issue as it sounds, it can really portray your personality through your page. Let's face it, if you use a blogger given template, how many additional people will choose the same type of template as yourself? The chances are, probably tons and your content may be a lot better then the next person writing however since the templates are similar a lot of time people would just assume it's similar to each other.

It's always better to design your own template if you have some knowledge in programming to make your own template one of a kind. However, if you don't know any coding there are actually many websites which offer free templates. The ones that I've seen which I would recommend would be from the following links. Obviously you can always customize with different pictures or colors instead as well, enjoy! -Swapw

http://blogger-templates.blogspot.com/

http://www.isnaini.com/blogger-templates/

http://freetemplates.blogspot.com/

http://www.geckoandfly.com/blogspot-templates/

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What should you do when your content is being infringed?

2007-07-09T22:46:00.000-07:00

For those of you that's wondering what's happening with Swapw lately, well I've been kinda busy with various projects that I have been trying very hard to push and many of them seem to blossom slowly but they are blossoming! Okay so back into our lessons today and let's get right into it.

Many of us including myself have gotten our contents infringed upon or stolen by others, although it is by all means annoying and wrong it happens everyday. So what should you do when your content is bring copied by others? Through the video today I provide you with my take on it and why.

When someone steals your content, there are a few things you can do. Keep in mind these are techniques that I use myself as well and believe me, to implement them is easy however to see success out of it really varies.

1. Contact the perspective copy cat - The reason that I use the word "perspective" is because sometimes the topic that you blog about is a popular topic and the sources or news that you read could be identical with the other person. However, you should always leave a comment or write the person an e-mail letting them know that you acknowledge what they're doing is similar to your blog or sources.

People are usually pretty defensive when they are not copying another's content, and therefore if they are fast to respond with strong points chances are they you got the wrong guy. However, if they keep quiet not always but this is usually signs of a red flag or simply out of guilt.

2. Ask them to give you credit - Most of the time, people are less hesitant to delete their post. However giving others credit seems to be an easier route and many times I find this avenue the easiest way to resolute the problem.

3. Contact their advertisers - If you still see a lack of response from the other individual and you decide to pursue it, you can contact their advertisers and fill them in about this situation. The advertisers are usually on the first page of anybody's blog or web site. Look for banners, text links, and Adsense and take sometime to find out about them and then write them an e-mail. Always think outside the box and think what's in it for them on your e-mail. Don't go on a frenzy to complain because no one will look at a stranger's e-mail in depth when the first thing you talk about is how horrible one of their client is. You should probably write something in the nature of your experiences and problems you have encountered with their client; how it can potentially lead to further problems with the advertisers, etc. Most companies if properly managed do appreciate such responses and most I would say havetaken proper actions.

4. Contact authority - There is actually a law called Digital Millennium Copyright Act. I have not personally pursued anyone this far, however Google will take proper action against the individual if their investigation find the copy cat guilty from your accusations. What I mean when I said proper actions would include banning their account permanently, disabling their Google Adsense, etc. Here's link to Google, for your reference.

Although I have personally used most of these techniques that I am recommending, I find it a lot easier just to let it go. Don't get me wrong, they are all valid points which can be implied however in the end they are simply a slap in the wrist.
These copy cats can always find other advertisers to advertise with as well as to use other means to monetize their web site. That's the nature of the internet, I think what should be focused on is not policing but rather develop yourself in terms of branding. There are always fake Versace bags out there, but there will always authentic Versace buyers for that same reason. -Swapw

swapw making+money+smart blog+make+money blog hyper+links

How to sell your text links spots?

2007-07-07T06:57:00.000-07:00

Aiight guys, you know how I've talked about making money through Text Link Ads right? Well, the guys from Text Link Ads actually take about 50% of your profit believe it or not. Although it's pretty safe to say that you will get the money when you sign up with them, but there are actually alternative ways to do sell your links believe it or not!

It's quite simple and frankly most people are scared about it, what is it you ask? It is to simply sell links youself! I explain it in depth through my video today which you can check it out but if you are somebody with a quality PR in your blog why not sell your links openly? A great place to sell you links beside your blog that I like doing is in forums! In increase PR, people bend over their knees to do it all the time so it's not a hard sell. The tough part is getting paid and consistency. Since you're the seller obviously you gotta deal with the crap that comes from your customers, however if you're just dealing with one or two...that's actually not too bad right? Don't be afraid if you have a blog with some PR, you can do it! -Swapw

blog make+money hyper+links making+money+smart swapw

Monetize your site with Text Link Ads

2007-07-04T04:31:00.000-07:00

* Intro to Text Link Ads or TLA(0:00 - 0:19)

* Text Link Ads explained (0:20 - 2:00)

* How much does TLA pay? (2:01 - 2:20)

* The convenience of TLA (2:21 - 3:30)

* Wrap up (3:31 - 3:55)

Now, I've introduced many ways of making money over the web and yet today's post is going to be not just another way to make money on the web but "the" easiest way to make money on the web. What is it? Well, it is through placing "text link ads" in your web site and you can see some of its' details in its' process through my video today.

The basic requirement is simple; your blog must obtain some page rank with Google. Obviously like most advertising service they require your blog to not contain any pornography, sexual, or advertising content. The higher your PR is, the better the amount that is being offered to your blog. How Text Link Ads work is in some ways similar to Google Adsense. Google Adsense places ads in your blog according to your contents. As the content changes so does the ad in effort to match your content. Text Link Ads are different that they place ads in your site according to how much the merchant is willing to pay for advertisement for "x" period of time.

For example: let's say that your blog is about money and that's all you ever talk about in your blog. What Google Adsense does is decide what type of advertisements that are most suitable to your blog and in most cases the ads keep changing although they are all money related. If you decide to talk about your dinner one day then the ads turn into something in relations to the topic instead. So in ways, merchants don't really have any sort of control over where their ads are being placed nor is it stabilized. It is simply rotated around various different spots in Google's network according to Google's algorithm.

What Text Link Ads does differently essentially is that your ads are placed in a blog or web site at a fixed period of 30 days. This means that your ads are not rotated around during this period nor does the blogger's topic effect the nature or positioning of your ad in any way. This makes the ads a lot more stable and obviously more effective. Most experienced bloggers who blog, regardless of their niche sometimes ramble on other areas that's not related to their topic. That's only normal, afterall who can really talk about the same topic all day long forever? Including myself, sometimes I just run out of things to say! The majority do go back to their main subject in their blog and unlike Google Adsense which may switch ads around in these cases, Text Link Ads doesn't and in many ways provide stability to the advertiser in their 30 day turn around time.

Now moving toward monetization. Monetizing with Text Link Ads is the same as adding links to your web site. Just by placing text links into your blog you will be paid in a monthly basis! Yes, it's that easy! Google Adsense needs your visitors to click on your ads for you to receive any sort of compensation but Text Link Ads doesn't. What the advertisers does is essentially renting a spot in your blog and just placing their link in your blog you get paid for it! So if you were to open up 10 spots in Text Link Ads and each ad were to pay you $4 a month, you have just received over $40 a month right on the spot! It comes similar to a form of rent, so every month you can expect $40 from the advertisers automatically! If your page rank is really high, you may charge up to $15 or more a month per spot!

Obviously to achieve a blog or site with a decent page rank is not easy and it takes time. However, once you have reached it why not monetize it and let it generate you some nice income? Do take advantage of it and that's really how you can make money smart through your blog. -Swapw

swapw making+money+smart blog+make+money text+link+ads

Affiliate Marketing explained II

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

* Intro to a continuation study on affiliate marketing (0:00 - 0:15)

* My experiences (0:16 - 1:43)

* The importance of picking an industry of knowledge (1:44 - 2:28)

* The first impression (2:29 - 3:01)

* Click through rate (CTR) (3:02 - 3:40)

* The difference you bring (3:41 - 4:25)

* Update of my experience and wrap up (4:26 - 4:56)

Okay, after some tweaking I have finally gotten somewhere with my affiliate marketing. I have to say, the first month of affiliate marketing was not a success story. As a matter of fact, I was down in the red zone which at one point I have almost given up on the idea. However, thank God that I sticked it through and now I'm turning it around and I have to say that I'm pretty satisfied with the current results. Through my video today, I will show you in depth of what I'm doing and my own personal experience of doing it as well. Since this is a second video that I'm doing on affiliate marketing, in case you want to see my first post about it you can click it here.

Affiliate marketing is a big industry and it will only grow over time. Just think about it, how many folks do you know personally that's working hard online and making a living out of it? The chances are, very little if at all. It is still an untapped industry and there's definitely a lot of opportunity within it if you jump in early into the game itself. You can do it aggressively or passively. Like my first video which shows how you can do it passively, this video I will provide you how to do it in a more proactive manner by creating a specific web site just for it.

There are a few keys to affiliate marketing:
1. Select an industry you know - Don't jump into an industry just because you hear a lot of buzz on it, do you know the industry? What will be the advantage you have over others? What makes your campaign better?

2. First impressions are extremely crucial - Just like a real store, if the first impression is bad people run out a lot faster then you would have ever imagined. For example, if the department store is badly organized do you think you would believe it to be a good store to go shopping versus one that is well organized? The answer is clear, the better organized one will gain more customers. Be sure your online affiliate marketing site whether your blog or elsewhere look professional.

3. Click through rate - Do some experimenting, is your audience coming to your site and not converting? Be creative and place them in different spots of your page and optimize the click through rate. The bottom idea is to capture your audience the first time they're there at your site.

4. The difference you bring - Do you have something different versus your competitors? Research, research, research. Before jumping into anything, be sure to find out what your competitors are doing and what they're not doing. Crop out your spot in the field and hammer out your advantages over others.

There's a learning curve and it won't be an overnight success. So don't expect to succeed the very first time, but just like anything over the internet; if you look deep enough you'll find your own gem to make money smart! Good luck. -Swapw

affiliate+marketing swapw making+money+smart blog+make+money

How to gain your traffic besides Google

2007-06-30T03:30:00.000-07:00

* Intro to substitution to Google (0:00 - 0:17)

* What inspired me to talk about it (0:18 - 1:30)

* PR & SEO (1:31 - 2:04)

* Problem and reliance (2:05 - 2:58)

* Opportunities in Yahoo, Msn, Mybloglog (2:59 - 3:48)

* Last minute recommendations & wrap up (3:49 - 4:22)

I care a lot about who I recommend on this blog. I have always read extensively before jumping into recommending someone besides my blog. One of the bloggers that I have recommended, John Chow has recently gotten the hammer from Google. Google has dropped his site from being listed number one in one of the hottest area of online searches, "making money online." As one of the most popular blog on the internet, this is definitely a heavy blow. To achieve the number one spot with Google in the first place is definitely not easy in competition with huge companies out there who are also fighting for that one spot. Just imagine all the news media, stock firms, investment first, all competing for that special spot up with Google the list just goes on and on. What Google has done has definitely given him a temporary set back in his blog which you can read more about his experiences in his own words here.

Through reading that particular post, it has drawn more attention to me on the importance to address the subject of where to gather your audience besides Google. You can see it from my opinion with today's video. It's no surprised to many webmasters that Google is the golden spot to be if you would like your web site to be recognized by the internet world. Including myself, I have always strongly encouraged my readers to optimize their sites with Google. However, what if one day the same thing were to happen to you where you are no longer in that magic spot in the top 10 search results with Google on the words you have optimized? Or worse yet, you were banned from Google? Now what?

It's always good to spread yourself throughout the web world even in search engines like Yahoo and MSN as well which both are recommended from my video to optimize. Sure the market of people doing a search in their search engines are in no where comparable to Google, however if you are strongly rooted in such search engines you would be a lot likely to be minimize your impact with Google due to your strong presence on top keywords on these other search engines. Let's not also forget the fact that since these search engines are less looked at by most webmasters, that can really translate to where the MONEY is really at! Less competition in your specific keywords, less competition to grab the top spot, the lists goes on and on and the perks are endless. I do have to be honest, I haven't optimized MSN as much as I would like to be but with Yahoo I have definitely done my homework and this site's currently got over 8k of pages indexed which is huge for a blog with only 3 months moving onto its 4th month in its real history. How do I get indexed in so many pages? Well, what I've found to work for me lies on meta tagging your site. Meta tagging is mostly abandoned by most search engines nowadays, however I have found that it is still being regularly used by Yahoo in their indexing method so for those of you who are thinking optimizing with Yahoo that should not be something you want to miss.

Besides the big three search engines, where else should you go and grab your audiences? I will recommend one of my favorite social book marketing sites, Mybloglog. It's fun, enjoyable, and in a way gives you a mini "Myspace" feel which I like. With it being ranked as one of the top four bookmarking sites in existence, it's definitely not one you would like to miss. Although not auto pilot like the search engines, it requires you to log in and connect with others. However if properly implemented, it can definitely bring a good amount of traffic towards your site. In case you are banned from Google, it's not the end of the world yet. If you are well situated and have grounded your blog in good contents, the visitors will come and that's really the fundamentals that you do not want to throw away. What you write surprisingly is more important then how search engines view you and this is how you can make money smart or own a blog make money machine! -Swapw

meta+tags swapw making+money+smart blog+make+money page+rank

Mail and e-mail scams

2007-06-28T01:09:00.000-07:00

* Intro to scams (0:00 - 0:30)

* Details of this scam (0:31 - 1:30)

* My criticism of this type of advertising (1:31 - 2:42)

* How these scams function (2:43 - 4:10)

* Similar tactics online (4:11 - 5:15)

* Wrap up (5:16 - 5:29)

Today I have received a scam letter. Have you guys received it recently? It is from an advertising agency called N.M.E. The nature of it goes on and talk about you have won a jackpot of $2,100,000 and that you have to contact them. This scam is all so familiar to me because I remember receiving something similar when I was a child and I actually thought I won! LOL. Since I haven't gotten scams like these for some time I thought it be a good idea and make and video today about this incident. I know the majority of us will probably not fall into such schemes, however for those of you that are not aware of it this may shed you some light into your thinking.

When I got the scam letter, I was curious as to what relations does N.M.E has to do with a world report U.S. News, an obvious news publishing company which what this letter advertises. Guess what? NOTHING! While that is in no surprise, what's funny about this letter is that the deadline is to enter the Sweepstakes before 12:01 AM on 10/15/2005. That's like what? A year and a half ago? N.M.E obviously doesn't seem very professional if at all and a world report U.S. News seems to be a horrible company as well. Although the news company's web site seems legitimate, anyone who receives this letter would loose all respects for this company. If you ask me if there's tips to avoid such scams, I would simply advise that if it's too good to be true...well it probably is.

That's definitely not a way to make money smart. It is the oldest trick in the book and I certainly hope you don't fall prey to it. There is always this "one" sucker to everyone of these schemes that's why they will always be around. However, don't let it be you! -Swapw

swapw making+money+smart blog+make+money scam

Site linking explained

2007-06-26T22:46:00.000-07:00

* Intro to the types of links (0:00 - 0:59)

* The differences explained (1:00 - 3:26)

* Where are the links placed? (3:37 - 5:17)

* My recommendations and wrap up (5:18 - 5:50)

Site linking is something that is very common today, it is almost a must if you want your blog exposed to the rest of the world. Due to the growing number of bloggers, it has became almost a requirement for bloggers to stay above the water versus the rest of the community. Unless the topic is so unique and uncultivated, chances of succeeding with a great amount of readership is almost minimal.

Since my last video which I have criticized about link love or link trains, I had a chance to talk to someone who actually started one of them. Cool isn't it? Throughout the communication, a few things that were brought up which I thought I do a video to explain the meanings behind each one of them for you through today's video.

There are three types of links out there that are relevant for bloggers. There are link trains, link exchanges, and paid links. I will explain them one by one below:

1. Link trains - This is a technique that is usually started by one individual who has somewhat credible background in blogging or an experienced blogger who has just started a new blog who uses it to cultivate numerous links in a short period of time. What the blogger writes about in a blog post is usually about their link train idea, usually pointing towards a tendency to call it an experiment. The idea behind it is to link as much people as possible therefore generating a tremendous amount of links into their blog. In case you missed my prior post, you can visit it here.

2. Link exchanges - This is a technique when a blogger likes another blog that he or she initiates a proposal to "trade" links. What happens here usually revolves around two bloggers who will provide each other with a link, linking their blogs together. Most of the time it appears on either the front page IE: blogroll or a specific link page within the blog.

3. Paid links - This technique revolves around a blogger, usually with either a small amount of readership or a "low" PR asking a blog with a higher PR to place their link onto their blog. Once the blog with a "higher" PR places the link onto their blog in terms, the blog with a lower PR then provides a monetary favor to the blogger with a higher PR. This practice however is not recommended by "G", and those who does it should keep quiet in their actions for obvious reasons.

Now, which one of the three do you think is more relevant to your blogs? You would have to be the one to decide, however I personally would not recommend going with link trains as I have mentioned before. No one likes link spams and anyone who visits such page would deem it as an irrelevant post. However, link exchanges and paid links would be something I would recommend a bit more although paying links is obviously cheating in someway. As we all know, the reason for effective linking is to bring traffic and traffic is the gold of internet.

Linking is definitely crucial for any web site or blogs. Although some may argue that linking each other is overly rated, however it is clear that links produce good PR results and a good PR would then result in an opportunity for you to "sell" your links and make additional money. -Swapw

blog+make+money link+exchange link+trains making+money+smart swapw

Liar game, a soap that I recommend

2007-06-24T22:52:00.000-07:00

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Over the weekend, I have been watching some Japanese soap operas with English subs. Do you guys watch this kinda stuff? I find it highly addictive as I am totally sucked into it. Although I don't understand a word of what they're saying since the entire soap is based in Japanese, however I have really enjoyed it even just by watching the sub title.

For those of you that had jumped straight into the soap opera, what do you guys think about it? For those of you who hasn't watch it, it's a great one trust me. Just to give you guys a little bit more information about the famous Swapw, I'm not the type of guy that goes around and just watch soap operas all day, but boy I love this soap opera. This soap opera is still relatively new in Japan and obviously I've only placed its first episode here, so if you want to watch more just check them out under the guy name Luigi something he's got all the episodes up to 11 subbed. I hope you guys had a great weekend and I look forward into talking more money making techniques tomorrow. -Swapw

Adbrite Invideo

2007-06-23T22:52:00.000-07:00

* Intro to video ads in general (0:00 - 0:32)

* The concept of Adbrite Invideos (0:33 - 0:54)

* Details of Adbrite Invideos (0:55 - 2:41)

* Why others fail (2:42 - 3:07)

* Wrap up (3:08 - 3:49)

You guys remember that I talked before that I'm not a huge fan of Google's video ads? Well, out of all places I found a great video ad concept for those of you who either upload videos or do video blogs and that is the concept of Adbrite Invideo. Like I have mentioned before, nowadays we want things fast, we want them NOW and no one has the patience to wait! This is the very reason why Google's video ads are not going to work. They take up user's time just to watch a video and who really knows what it is advertising about until perhaps 15 seconds of your time? Just in case that you have missed my prior review on it, you can read it here.

Adbrite Invideo delivers exactly that and I talk about it through my video today. How do they do it? Adbrite Invideo ads essentially are ads that are embedded in your videos like text ads. These smart ads only take a small portion of the video on the very top portion and it does not in anyway interfere with the video. What's more is that they offer very friendly interface which those text ads will enlarge when your cursor is on top of it and when clicked, rather then disrupting the video it opens another window instead. That's good and dandy but what really gets into me is that it provides the essential idea of user branding within the video itself. What do I mean by branding is that the video that you upload is structured in a way where it enables you to really place your logo at the bottom right corner of the video itself.

Although I am not a big fan of Adbrite text ads itself but in terms of their concept of Invideo, I really think they have really hit it home for me. If you upload videos to the web or video blog like myself, why don't you check them out at Adbrite? I think you'll love the concept like I do to make some big bucks!

A review on JaKelDaily.com

2007-06-22T02:33:00.000-07:00

* Intro to blogs that I recommend (0:00 - 0:48)

* Jakeldaily.com (0:49 - 1:38)

* Good reads from this blog (1:39 - 2:40)

* Advantages of this blog (2:41 - 4:10)

* Wrap up (4:11 - 4:44)

Over time, I have realized how fun it has been for myself to step into the world of blog. It is also because of how much I've enjoyed blogging, I've spent the last few days doing some serious upgrading in this blog site. The complex tasks ranged from consulting a designer all the way into selecting the type of color in the background. It has been a fun and tiring process at the same time, and I'm proud to say that it was completed today.

Overtime, I have many people ask me as to what types of pages or additional resources do I recommend checking out and moving forth I have decided to do a review on different blogs that I've encountered or have enjoyed reading every now and then and hopefully you will find it just as resourceful as my blog in helping you make money over the net.

Today the blog that I have decided to review is called JaKelDaily.com and you can find out about how I feel through my video. From its first looks I will have to say that it has a very close resembelence to a blog which I have reviewed in the past and it would have to be the blog by John Chow. The outline, template, all the way to some of the tactics in making money are all quite similar. Because of its close similarities, I did not find myself a big fan of it. However, when you examine the blog in deeper depth you would realize the amount in the difference of style that it was written in. Besides its unique content that Jason writes, it has also became one of the fast rising stars in the blogosphere due to the amount of links that Jason has received making him the top 5k blog within Technorati.

Some of my favorite reads in his web site included the concept of PEO and his idea of selling links in his web site which I have find it to be profound. I have seen people advertise their web site for "advertisers" in the "advertise here" page. However, I have never seen a blogger advertise to other bloggers on making them more popular within their blog? I find this concept to be quite original and if Jason keeps it up, JaKelDaily.com would definitely rise to become a very strong blog heading toward success.

Swapw
Blog
Review
Making+money+smart

Link trains, does it work?

2007-06-18T19:53:00.000-07:00

* Intro to link trains or link love (0:00 - 0:16)

* What is the concept behind it? (0:17 - 1:33)

* What is the purpose of links besides PR (1:34 - 1:44)

* What happens to its creditability when abused? (1:45 - 2:51)

* What's the purpose PR or links and my views (2:52 - 4:05)

* Wrap up (4:06 - 4:39)

Link love, link trains, Technorati trains, Alexa trains, viral link trains these are just common self promotion techniques that people use to promote themselves. What does it entail? Well, basically one person usually a blogger that is somewhat reputable says "guys, I'm doing an experiment" to see if linking with one another is going to increase the ranking of a certain field. This field usually varies depending on whatever "spam" they are promoting.

Yes, I said it. It is spam and I don't like it. I'm just surprised on how much suckers are sucked into doing just the same. Their slogan is usually something about increasing traffic, page rank, etc. Honestly, do you really think that this would bring the benefits into your blog? Let's say that your page rank hops high, with crappy content do you honestly think that it's gonna be a cash generating machine? Not only does it abuse the blogosphere of its reputations of organic rankings, it's just another way to cheat the system. My video today talks specifically about this and addressing it to my readers. Whether you agree with me or not, let's put our differences aside and examine whether these type of tactics work or not?

Unless you are a reputable blogger with somewhat of a consistent readership, this is not going to be working for you. Why? Well, almost 99% of these type of linking posts revolves around posting the links in the blog during an entry. After a few days, what happens is that the date of the blog entry gets pushed back and these so called links are no where to be seen unless others who read about the blog navigates and read older posts.

There are always readers in any posts of a blogger but the majority of the audience would focus on the more recent post hence decreases the original concept of linking with one another as time goes to past. Let's also examine another factor about these link trains. By the time you are the 20th person posting all 19 links before you, do you think that this post draws any relevancy to others as you spam the page with links? Do you really think that others would check all 20 links? That's just say that you do post your link onto the train and continues, what makes others want to visit your blog when there's clearly too many clicks to choose from? For those of you that are thinking of hopping in such type of fab, just remember if anyone's gonna be significant in these type of exchanges or benefit it is ONLY the person who started it. Not second place, and definitely not the last one either.

-Swapw
"Making money smart"

Swapw
Opinions
Making+money+smart
Blog+make+money
link+trains

The basics on how to purchase a web site

2007-06-17T19:42:00.000-07:00

* Intro to how to purchase a web site (0:00 - 0:18)

* Experiences from myself (0:19 - 0:58)

* What to look for (0:59 - 2:35)

* My personal advise (2:36 - 4:00)

* Asking questions (4:01 - 4:27)

* Wrap up (4:28 - 4:44)

I have been thinking about a possible purchase of another web site for sometime now and after an extensive research on my own I have realized that there are not just a small market but a tremendous amount of scams out there. The ironic thing about it was that people were rushing into it and purchasing it like flies without knowing the basics of the "how to's" in diagnosing from a bargain into a scam. Therefore I thought I put up a video on the how to's on purchasing a web site through my video.

There are many reasons why someone like you and I would want to purchase a web site. Whether it is to dissect the web site, investment, or a possible venture, it is very important to look at several crucial areas about the web site before making a move. If you are too lazy to watch the video, here's kind of my take on purchasing a web site and where to really watch out when you are considering a purchase.

1. Examine the amount of visitors - Ask for screen shots, proof, do a Alexa check on the web site, and check the inbound links into the web site. Is it a few? A lot? Mixed?

2. Ownership - Is this web site owned by the seller? Is it constructed and coded by the seller? Does the web site have reseller rights? Was this web site transacted from another person beforehand and if so, who?

3. Coding - How is the web site being coded? Is this code being given to you? Does the owner own or coded itself?

4. Server requirements - What is the bandwith, storage space that is needed for the web site? Is there a specific amount of ram, storage space that is required for optimization?

5. SEO - Has this web site been optimized beforehand? Is the web site ranked? What type of optimization has it been done? White hat? Black hat? etc.

6. Revenue - How is the web site raking its profits? What type of source and what would be the 1-2-3 to maintain it at that level? What is the general requirement in time to invest into maintaining it? Are there any screen shots on the revenue? Is the revenue consistent or does it seem fishy?

7. Chargebacks -If you decided to give the web site back to the original owner within a few days after the purchase, how willing is the original seller help amend the transaction? How much would the fee cost?

8. The reasons for selling - Always ask for the reason behind the sell of the web site. Is it because it is a product going obsolete? Is it because that the traffic is going down to the tubes? Etc.

9. Support - How would the after service be and the amount of time afterwards? A week? A month? Etc.

10. Additional questions - Ask as many questions as you like and don't be shy. Remember, anything that looks fishy should always signal a red flag and proceed it with caution.

-Swapw
"Making money smart"

Swapw
Purchase+website
Making+money+smart
Blog+make+money
investment

Pop-up ads, does it work?

2007-06-16T01:23:00.000-07:00

Instead of doing a video today I thought I take a different approach. Let's examine some videos that I have found through Youtube about pop-up ads. Do you guys think that it'll make you tens of thousands of dollars through it? Watch it and tell me what you think. My personal opinion is that this technique will NOT work and I will explain to you why I believe this technique will not succeed. Here are the videos:

Here's the first video:

Second video:

Last video:

Now after watching this video, do you think that it will make you tons of cash? :) Honestly I can't really say that this technique is going to work if at all. Let's examine the videos a little bit. There are a few critical areas that I think is good to take a look at. On his first video, he has mentioned about creating a web site that has a general public interest to it IE: jokes, videos, pics, and things of this area. Do you think a good old pop-up ad is a great venue to add additional value to your web site? Any successful web site in this realm will most likely NOT have these type of pop-up ads. Why? Because it simply kills traffic. Let's just take my blog site for example, if my blog is filled with splash pages, pop-up ads everywhere before you can even navigate into the main content of my posts how would you feel about it?

Chances are that you would most likely shy away from the page because we all hate pop-up ads and that includes those of us that know nothing about the net! Besides the fact that more and more people are afraid of encountering pop-up ads due to the increase of trojan variants and now robots let's talk about the effectiveness of these pop-up ads.

There is an assumption of one thousand visitors a day to the web site from the author of this video. How would the person building the web site achieve that? Unless there are incentives, the visitors of the web site will most likely NOT come back due to the bombardment of ads. Let's assume that the owner of the web site spends some money in advertisement to gain visitors interested in his or her site. For what it is worth, a $0.03 gain per customer will simply not recoup the cost of advertisement even if every single of of your traffic clicks on an assumption of three ads.

From the looks of the author, he does seem to be a pretty credible source prior as a blogger or a big myspace guy beforehand. Unfortunately for many of these popular giants that have gained an immense amount of popularity, a very big trap that they almost all fall in is with the problem of over monetizing through techniques that they've discovered or learned. Their loyal reader would eventually abandon their web site and it is most likely that newbies will fall into the traps of what these guys are selling into. What usually happens like most scams is if properly marketed, they almost always make a lot of money. However, this always bottoms after these types of scheme is being figured out and earnings essentially bottoms.

Instead of jumping toward the result, had they continue with a continuous effort to enhance their web site or techniques they would continued their readership increase and this would go with the profit and benefits that comes with it. It's easy to say then done, if I was in their shoe I really don't know if I would be tempted for all the cash that is out there. From my view this is just a more recent case of a potential red flag over the internet and I would recommend readers be watchful of these advertisement or techniques. If it is being advertised to be a huge successes for common people like you and I, it is almost always screaming trouble.

-Swapw
Making money smart

Swapw
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CREAMaid

2007-06-15T01:07:00.000-07:00

* Intro to CREAMaid (0:00 - 0:23)
http://www.creamaid.com

* The CREAMaid difference (0:24 - 1:24)

* Advantages of CREAMaid (1:25 - 3:55)

* Wrap up (3:56 - 4:09)

For many of us, we join forums to discuss our interests our hobbies, etc. However, have you really thought about communications that is being done directly through your widgets? I don't know about you but I haven't. I found a cool web site today called CREAMaid and I really believe it's got something special to offer to many bloggers. Through today's video I will address exactly that and you will be able to see the potential CREAMaid brings into the table.

Besides makeing money through your having your posts syndicated throughout the CREAMaid network, you are also indirectly seen by other bloggers in your field. Just think of it as "free" advertisementing. I can kinda see it being a potential spam for some internet marketers, however if you join the right types of conversations it can be proven useful for tutorials or live exchange in knowledge. Let's not also forget the possibilities of raking in more traffic through these indirect communications with others if you demonstrate sufficient knowledge in the field of your expertise.

The payment method is pretty interesting to the fact that whenever others participate in your conversation, you get a "referral" fee. What that is being defined by CREAMaid is unknown because it is not specifically specified over the web site. However, I wouldn't feel that there's any downside to it. Afterall, to make this type of cash seems to be a bit easy from my first look of it. I will have to take a deeper look and play around with it to provide my secondary view, but for now I give it a go. Beneath is one of the widget in what it looks like if you are interested!

-Swapw
"Making money smart"

Swapw
Creamaid
Widget
Making+money+smart
Blog+make+money

Reviewback

2007-06-13T20:14:00.000-07:00

* Intro to Reviews (0:00 - 1:24)

* Reviewing each other through Reviewback (1:25 - 1:50)

* Reviewback explained (1:51 - 3:16)

* Wrap up (3:17 - 3:32)

Okay, for those of you that have been following my blog you would understand that a lot of times I stress on the importance of writing reviews and content to make money. If you have missed it, here are some links of my previous posts: Blogitive, Payperpost, Blogsvertise, etc.

Now, reviewing advertisers are fun and easy but have you had a chance to really think about possibilities of reviewing one another as bloggers? I believe it's an area that has yet to be tapped and I believe there are plenty of areas for growth both for an increase in traffic as well as exposures specifically in the blogosphere. Through my video today you will find out about Reviewback and my take on its ideas as very unique and possibly something huge.

For those of you that have already watched the video, you will know that this idea is huge. Not only will you get the "blogger" of whom you are doing the review to look at your blog, you would also get some of their readers to come visit you. This is NOT to even mention a free link exchange as you link each other. This could be something big and since I don't want to miss any of the big opportunities I would recommend the same for you to use readers and rake in some good Adsense, Affiliate, cash!

In case you have missed the link, here's the link to Reviewback: Here!

-Swapw
"Making money smart"

Swapw
Making+money+smart
Reviewback
Blog+make+money
Advertisement+reviews

Affiliate Marketing explained

2007-06-12T01:18:00.000-07:00

* Intro to affiliate marketing (0:00 - 0:27)

* Affiliate marketing explained (0:28 - 1:50)

* How and what to start with affiliate marketing (1:51 - 3:15)

* How does the payout work (3:16 - 3:43)

* What makes half.com good? (3:44 - 4:53)

* Wrap up (4:54 - 5:13)

Affiliate Marketing is something that many of us may or may not be familiar with and quite frankly many of us shy away from it simply because we don't really understand it. It was also the same reason why I have not been posting as I have done so on a daily basis because I have been testing and trying out different techniques which I have learned.

To really talk about the term of affiliate marketing, we need to undertand what affiliate marketing is. Is it marketing? If you think it's just another way of marketing, then you're completely wrong! It is really a simple salesman's job and you're the salesman that is either trying to sale your own product or product of others to people and the platform you are doing so is over the internet. Each sale or a person interested in the product ended up signing up, you get a cut of the profit.

Now if properly applied, affiliate marketing can become quite profitable and a very steady source of passive income. Many "bad" businessmen uses very grey practices with it and many of us may have already seen these type of banners or advertisements. These type of businesses have really tainted the world of affiliate marketing and it's sad how it is being perceived today.

What I have personally discovered is the fact that if you actually provide your customers things they they ACTUALLY need, it'll go very well. Sounds funny and basic but believe me you will be surprised on how many people that can actually grasp this very same concept. Today's video I explain what affiliate marketing and the basic steps into it. Please feel free to contact me if you have questions, and as I have mentioned if it is properly implemented it can really generate a very generous amount of reward or income!

-Swapw
"Making money smart"

PS: I am not really liking my new system with Vista right now, it's gotten a lot of bugs in it. So if you are using your Windows XP, it's probably a good idea to wait until later to upgrade after these type of problems are being hammered out.

Swapw
Making+money+smart
affiliate+marketing
half.com
Blog+make+money

Google Adwords

2007-06-09T18:08:00.000-07:00

* Intro to keywords (0:00 - 0:19)

* Keyword defined (0:20 - 1:10)

* Keyword optimzation (1:11 - 2:53)

* Google Adwords (2:54 - 4:38) Here's the magic link!

* Wrap up (4:39 - 5:04)

We've all heard about Google Adsense, but have you heard about Google Adwords before? You may or may not have heard about it but do you know howto truly use it? I don't like to pay money for it and I know you don't too and therefore I will show you a link where you can use "free" of charge from Google directly which directly help you to define which keyword or topic to talk or optimize about through today's video. As you know, it's important to optimize your site. First and foremost visitors, why? Because these visitors are the "gold" of any web site!! Without visitors, having Adsense is useless, having any type of advertisement is useless. To make money smart, you must understand the importance of how a web site works. Once you understand it, you have to "correctly" direct your traffic there so you can make some serious cash with your blog or web site. Obviously I have posted many posts about that, but back onto the topic of Google Adwords here's the link below. I'm a bit lazy today so I'll just drop the link and stop talking, be sure to watch the video. Have a great weekend, friends. :)

Google Adword external tool link - here!

-Swapw
"Making money smart"

Swapw
Making+money+smart
Blog+make+money
Google+adwords

How to avoid unwanted Charges!

2007-06-08T00:10:00.000-07:00

* Intro to how to avoid scams (0:00 - 0:12)

* Annoyance of my hands (0:13 - 0:43)

* Completing offers (0:44 - 1:30)

* A trick missed/discovered & my experience (1:31 - 2:11)

* Review (2:12 - 4:00)

* Wrap up (4:01 - 4:26)

It has ben a while since I've posted about money. For my loyalist who are curious as to what happened to me, I've been doing some serious experimenting on the side of affiliate marketing.

For those of you who are not familiar with affiliate marketing, it is basically sales on the internet in short. I will have to say this area is something that I'm still quite new. I have played with it here and there in the past. However for the past few days I've seriously sat down and tried to figure out what, where, and how. As of now, I wil have to say that I am still in the process to tweak it and once I have it figured out I will try to share some of it with you guys without giving my secrets away! lol.

Now moving on with the post today about unwanted charges, do you guys remember that I have had a post about completing offers in the past? Just to recap really quick, completing offers is pretty much trying out advertiser's product or service and in turn they provide you with a little bit of benefit as a result by signing up with them. With the right web sites like ones that I've introduced here at my site, you can earn monetary benefit through signing up with these offers. Obviously the trick that these advertisers are playing is that they're hoping to keep you as long as possible in their program so they can charge you a certain amount of fees which usually are proven to be quite high after the trial period ends. To truly make money, obviously you just have to be even more clever and cancel on time to avoid any penalties.

Well, I have discovered an additional ways to more securely protect yourself and therefore you can take a full advantage of the program and seriously rake in money without relapse. Remember that I have introduced you a money making technique to utilize Cashontap? For those of you who have missed my post about it, you can find it here.

Besides private phone, a separate and added e-mail, today's video as you can see buying a desposible credit card is vital in the game of completing offers for cash. The idea is to buy a $10 or $20 disposable credit card and complete as much offer as possible of the highest payout so you can walk away with as much cash as possible with as little investment as possible. Once the disposable credit card is all used up with the amount that you've agreed to set and pay, that's it! Even if these advertising companies want to charge you, they CAN'T! How cool is that? It's a bit tricky on your end, but that is really how you make money smart!

Here's a link to Cashontap if you are interested: Cashontap
Here's a link to privatephone: Privatephone

-Swapw
"Making money smart"
PS: I just made a new forum. If you're interested, drop me a question. :)
Here's the link: Discuss Money

Swapw
Making+money+smart
Completing+offers
Blog+make+money
Cashontap

Technorati keyword, a tool to differentiate your blog

2007-06-03T23:39:00.000-07:00

Since the post that I have written about Technorati, I have continue to discover new tools from Technorati and it is very important not to underestimate the power it brings to your blog. To be proven supreme, a blogger must be access their positions with others who fight for those precious seats in Google with their keywords.

How do you analyze what others are blogging about? How do you know what topic to choose from? Well, from my personal experience I find this Technorati Keyword tool to be proven to be highly useful and I will introduce it to you guys today. A Technorati Keyword tool provides users the opportunity to search on what others are blogging on the same subject that you are talking about. For example, if you follow this link you would find out the amount of bloggers that are blogging about me from their blogs which is about 3 for today. This same tool can be used to search other keywords.

If you type in the word "money" into the Technorati keyword search box, you will realize that there are a ton of people that are writing about money. As you can see, some close to 31000 people out there are blogging about money, so in ths topic which I blog about is quite competitive. Apparently, there are tons of others that are also interested and blogging about money. Obviously who really makes it in the end all boils down to which blog is more useful and there are many other criterias that makes a successful blog. Do be sure to check out your own field, which you blog so you can know what you're up against before jumping into the topic. Some of the topic which don't have a lot of people talking about may actually be a great niche opportunities for those of us that are hoping for more readers!

Now, what this program has another level to just doing a simple search on topics. It can be embedded into your web site!! Instead of checking into the Technorati web site, it's easy to embedded this widget into your site and the code is just right below the page. This obviously allows you to see who's doing what you're blogging or wanting to blog in a day to day basis. The only downside is that there's search bar with this widget which you can embedd to your web site, therefore if you would like to search for additional keywords you are required to go to Technorati and to do so. It's a fabulous tool and I recommend any of you to check them out!

Technorati keyword - link

-Swapw

"Making money smart"

Swapw
Making+money+smart
Technorati
keyword+tool
blog+make+money

Lazy day...

2007-06-03T16:20:00.000-07:00

Today, I'm feeling a bit lazy. I guess that's due to all the work that I have been trying to have accomplished throughout the week. I have came across a video that I thought was pretty cool, let me tell you beforehand that it's not for everyone. Kinda rockish, punish, freakish Japanese Rock...although I don't understand a single word of what they're saying the overall look seemed pretty cool. I hope you guys have a great Sunday today.

For myself, I am upgrading my computer to an AMD 4200+ Acer computer today. It's gonna be a powerful machine that's gonna have Windows Vista on it and all the essentials. I'm not as tech savvy as I once was but this new computer will serve me good as I run more sophisticated programs in it. Here's the video, enjoy.

-Swapw
"Making money smart"

Swapw
Video

Article submissions, a must for all bloggers

2007-06-02T04:01:00.000-07:00

* Intro to writing articles (0:00 - 0:30)

* Benefits of writing (0:31 - 0:45)

* Where to submit (0:46 - 2:42)

* Global exposure and expert authors (2:43 - 4:02)

* Wrap up (4:03 - 4:18)

You may or may not have heard it before, but article submission is a must for all bloggers. For many of us the number one reason behind the hesitancy to submit an article is yes you have heard it, "theft". It is not uncommon for many of us to have gotten our own original work mimiced and in extreme cases a very straight copy and paste. From my personal experience, I have found several literally dead copies of my own postings from other people's blog.

However, I will continue and stand as an advocate for article submissions. Why? The reason is simple, if it is submitted to the right places it can potentially turbo boost your traffic and it's a great way to almost claim the authenticity of the post. I understand that you may have written several unique articles and that you just don't want to give it away, but trust me everyone else will find out about it sooner or later.

Now, moving toward which article web site submission is the best? Nobody wants to send in an article that no one reads or cares about. That would be a waste of time for anybody. From my own personal experience, I would recommend Ezinearticles. Besides it's the most popoular, the population or the amount of readers within Ezinearticles is huge. I do talk about additional details about them in my video today and I hope you guys will enjoy it. Have a great weekend.

-Swapw
"Making money smart"

Swapw
Make+money+smart
Blog+make+money
article+submission

Google Adsense video ads, hit or miss?

2007-06-01T19:51:00.000-07:00

* Intro Google Adsense video ads (0:00 - 0:20)

* Video ads and my opinion (0:21 - 2:47)

* Wrap up (2:48 - 3:14)

There seems to be a new wave of video ads that are slowly arising out from Google Adsense. Quite frankly, it's a horrible idea and sadly I am just not convinced that it will work. To make money smart, it's vital to pick an ad that is going to attract the right audience. Today's video I talk about video ads and why it is not going to work or make you additional profits. Aside from my personal experiences with video ads hasn't been the greatest, do you seriously think you or anyone else will sit and listen a minute of advertisement without knowing what it is first? Besides TV, who else wants to see more of these commercials? We want things immediately and we want them now.

This new wave of video and how I see will fail only proves that running for what's huge and new isn't always the best choice all the time. I find it funny especially on the extreme big video ads Google Adsense is trying to push, hmm....I serious wonder who wants to watch that? Chose your ads wisely and be sure to test them, that's how you would the most responsive results, best of luck.

-Swapw
"Making money smart"

Swapw
Google+Adsense
Video+ads
Blog+make+money
Make+money+smart

Payperpost Direct

2007-05-31T00:24:00.000-07:00

* Intro to Payperpost Direct (0:00 - 0:13)

* Reviewme vs Payperpost Direct explained (0:14 - 3:02)

* Tips on how to write for advertisers (3:03 - 3:36)

* Advantages for beginner & intermediate bloggers (3:37 - 4:11)

* Wrap up (4:12 - 4:36)

I've recently signed up blogging with Payperpost Direct and I will have to say that Payperpost really have done their own homework to attack their competitor Reviewme. Obviously whenever there's more competition into the world of companies fighting to get quality bloggers, we as bloggers get to rake it some good cash. A quick background explaination on Payperpost for those of you who are not familiar with them, Payperpost was originated initially with the slogan of get paid to blog. As one of the pioneers in that field, Payperpost is very well faimilar with bloggers and this will only enhance their visibility throughout the blogosphere.

If you have read my previous post on Reviewme, you would know that I'm a big fan of Reviewme but however, I do believe that Payperpost brings up a lot of negotiations onto the table and it'll be interesting to see how it pans out over time. You can read about my opinions about Payperpost Direct with my video blog above today.

Payperpost Direct's strongest point is pointing out that they charge some 35% to 85% cheaper to their advertisers versus Reviewme for potentially the same review thus it makes perfect sense to switch to Payperpost Direct. It then provides bloggers with the possibilities to generate more profit and charges advertisers less to get reviewed by a blogger of their choice. By expanding the pool of advertisers for bloggers always benefit bloggers. Those of us that had not receive reviews from Reviewme to do can now have a chance to get looked at by additional advertisers offered by Payperpost Direct. Will this trigger a new round of cost wars and beat down from Reviewme? I don't know, but one thing that's for sure is that us bloggers will benefit as a result and Payperpost Direct is definitely something I recommend looking into!

-Swapw
"Making money smart"

Swapw
Making+money+smart
Blog+make+money
Payperpost+Direct
Make+money
Payperpost
Blog

The power of criticism and how to deal with it

2007-05-29T16:13:00.000-07:00

* Intro to critcism to your blog (0:00 - 0:53)

* My own struggles (0:54 - 1:57)

* The importance of criticism (1:58 - 3:04)

* The increase of readers brings different views (3:05 - 4:35)

* Wrap up (4:36 - 4:53)

Over the past few weeks, I have been experiencing some criticism from my viewers. I will have to say most of the time I was not a happy camper as a result from these criticisms. As I have learned slowly on the importance to embrace them rather then to put them aside, today through my video I will help explain to you the importance of handling these criticisms.

As a number one asset of any blog whether it is to make money or to speak on any specific topic, it is very important that each and every criticism is taken into heart. I have failed doing that many times but slowly, I have realize their importance to a success of a blog. Readers are a blogger's biggest asset and it is through critiques one can only improve and arise into a better expert in their particular topic as a result of it.

Another point that I would like to also point out is that whenever there's a debate or disagreement, that demonstrate the power of your blog or comment. As your reader base increases, there will always be a spike in disagreements and you will never fulfill everyone's wishes. Obviously my blog is about making money, it's important for myself to listen to what others are talking about money out there besides what I'm learning. To make money smart, without listening how would you know "how to" make money from all available assets out there? I have to say that it has been humbling but it's definitely a lesson worth learning and hopefully you will too!

-Swapw "Making money smart"

Swapw
Making+money+smart
Blog+make+money
criticism
Make+money

E-gold reviewed (part 2)

2007-05-28T00:26:00.000-07:00

* Intro and e-gold review 2 (0:00 - 0:54)

* Debate and conversation background (0:55 - 1:20)

* Pros and cons with e-gold (1:21 - 3:56)

* e-gold recommendations and wrap up (3:57 - 4:47)

For those of you have read my original review on e-gold, you would have found that I am not a big advocate for e-gold as an investment; a popular online currency that is backed by gold. If you have missed my original review and are interested in reading about it, you can read it by clicking here.

I have considered my first review quite extensive, however after a recent debate with another user who is an advocate and uses e-gold under a day to day transaction I have decided to continue to dig into the topic of e-gold as I have learned new information about it. Some of the major topics which I felt are fundamentally flawed with e-gold can be found with the video today.

The biggest hole that I've found with e-gold through my conversation with the gentleman is that e-gold is aiming to become a legitimate digital currency. As e-gold is backed by gold, if its aim is for security and not investment then why would anyone secure themselves in e-gold? If it becomes a digital currency, then what will it backed by then? Besides e-gold, there are many digital currencies who also claims to be the most popular. How would you then distinguish the differences of the two beside the backing of gold for e-gold? What if e-gold ends up closing its doors to its investors and declares bankrupcy? What securities would the investor have instead of a piece of solid gold or a number according to e-gold? There are just seem to be many loop holes where e-gold has yet to explain and it's always smart to becareful then be sorry.

After our conversation, it has only affirmed my recoomendation to my viewers in e-gold to not invest. Unless you have already a huge vasted investment in e-gold or a deep understanding of gold I would recommend staying put and see what happens. That is the right way to make money smart!

-Swapw
"Making money smart"

Beneath is my conversation and debate with the gentleman, hopefully you find it informative and useful.

User (15 hours ago) marked as spam
You're not completely accurate on egold. Our company and affiliates and associates have been legally using e-gold since 1996. eGold is extremely popular in certain internet related arenas, not all illegal, contrary to the belief of many. It's a mistake to not point out that most ACTIVE egold users buy & sell using third party exchangers (eCurrencyExchangers -com) who convert it to other digital currencies or cash (check, bank wires, etc.).
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swapw (11 hours ago) marked as spam
Actually, this is a point that I did point out in my video. Many viewers would agree jumping into something that is "popular" may not be something that's profitable or even accurate.
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User (15 hours ago) marked as spam
Almost NO ONE BAILS OUT (redeems for gold), & they mostly enjoy the idea of their holdings being backed by value instead of just numbers on the screen. You point out that e-gold transactions are final. This is an important reason why quite a number of businesses (including some well establish web hosting companies) accept e-gold.
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swapw (11 hours ago) marked as spam
Your point is exactly why it's very dangerous. Since it is an institution without FDIC insurance, it can close down its' doors at anytime and users cannot be warranted in their securities. This type of story or scheme is just too common shown on TV everday.
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User (10 hours ago) marked as spam
No sir. Your point in misconstrued. E-gold is neither Bank, check cashing agency, or Money service business. e-gold is, by slang, a new breed "digital currency" and by function, a debit/credit accounting system whose value is based intrinsically on Gold. FDIC insurance is irrelevant. Banks are FDIC insured, but is the U.S. federal reserve? Research before reply. Over inflated, much indebted, fiat U.S. dollar used to be Gold back too. What happened?
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User (9 hours ago) marked as spam
New Comment (Pending Approval)The U.S. dollar is fiat - not backed. FDIC covers up to $100,000 usd for BANK failures. Not private business. Paypal, a money service business, holdings in U.S. Banks are backed to this amount. Nothing else. Paypal is not a DIGITAL CURRENCY. You need to understand the difference. I could lose 1 million invested in ebay with no recourse, at anytime. The only thing that makes ebay a bad investment is it's viability. egold is very viable.
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swapw (4 hours ago) marked as spam
I would like to follow-up by a point by point reasoning. Before we can pin point e-gold as a digital currency we have to first look into gold itself. Gold is only as valuable as any commodity that people perceive it to be, as newer generations abandoning the values of the old gold is not perceived as an equivalent value to anyone today.
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swapw (4 hours ago) marked as spam
If the viewer's value in gold means nothing, then e-gold would prove to be meaningless. A digital currency that is based on a fab trend of hype on gold is to be highly cautious.
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swapw (4 hours ago) marked as spam
That is not to mention there are other forms of digital currency that are available. It is open to debate whether e-gold would be proved supreme while a "defined" digital currency has yet to be determined. In the meanwhile, it still runs the risk as fraud if it decides to close its doors one day. If you are in the e-gold business, you would an expert at gold which is an asset. Like gold, to make money through it is not as flexible and you would be aiming for a long term solution.
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swapw (4 hours ago) marked as spam
Unless it is liquid it would fall under my video's comment as "unless you are deeply into gold as an investment, I would highly suggest not jumping into it."
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User (15 hours ago) marked as spam
and finally, many users have gotten paypal to reverse charges, thus cheating the hosting company out of payment/services. So there are pros and cons on BOTH ends, and in the end all parties should be doing their due diligence and not letting the payment service be the judge.
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swapw (11 hours ago) marked as spam
I'm not too sure if you are familiar with payment services of Paypal. If they examine only one side, I would then not recommend it. However, due to its reliability and its solution to situational examination from both sides it has proved to be a more popular security. Not to mention that it provides users interests as suppose to E-gold who doesn't.
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User (10 hours ago) marked as spam
No? Well let me assure you: a) Paypal was weaned from lies and deceit at it's user's expense, which their enormous initial debt. Perhaps they will tell you the truth. b) We experienced this 1st hand, and it had nothing to do with their honesty. BUt all is well, as this was business, and nothing personal to me. And again, paypal is a Money Transmittal service, not an electronic ecurrency - or threat to fiat (unbacked) hard currency.
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User (9 hours ago) marked as spam
We understand paypal well. EXPERIENCE. Fundamental difference is that egold is intended to be an digital currency. Paypal is a money service business. The US DOJ has valid concern , but not what you think. A different threat. egold has numerous times applied for licensing & been denied. egold can't touch the fraud of the credit card industry. Jackson created something the U.S. was originally based on, but is lost amongst the sleeping. Some are convinced that the USA is the new Old England.
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swapw (3 hours ago) marked as spam
I would like to close our debate as this. Before anything like E-gold should be looked at, each individual should seriously examine the value of gold.
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swapw (3 hours ago) marked as spam
If you believe gold would be the currency of tomorrow and that it will appreciate in value, invest by any means. However, if you think otherwise like I do then I would suggest a continuation of your current investments.
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swapw (3 hours ago) marked as spam
Remember, it's never too late to jump in later then to be sorry always. Good luck with all of your investments.-Swapw
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User (3 hours ago) marked as spam
I actually agree with you on both points, more on the 1st point. If treat your egold holdings as an investment then you SHOULD consider the underlying gold price. If you are doing quick purchasing transactions with merchants that give discounts for using egold or if you are a merchant entertaining all forms of payments (like us) then egold is what it is. Simply another form of payment. By the way, visa charges us 3% and we exchange egold for 1%.
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User (3 hours ago) marked as spam
And no. The 3% does protect us from visa doing a charge back when it is found that the card was stolen, and they never catch the thief...
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User (3 hours ago) marked as spam
I mean: The 3% does >NOT< color="#3333ff">(Reply) (Remove) (Block User) (Spam)

User (3 hours ago) marked as spam
Perhaps you are speaking more to someone who seems to be your specific audience (mentioning your blog), but I've only commented that you did not paint the full picture of egold's use. You propose and perhaps get others to presume that e-gold is an Investment when if you examine the world of the common egold user, and the history of egold's founder and promoting itself, it is put forth mostly as a method of irrevocable and private transacting (in line with eff dot org's goal for privacy).
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Make+money+online
blog+make+money
e-gold
investment
Make+money+smart
Swapw

John Chow, a real success through Blogging

2007-05-26T21:42:00.000-07:00

Since this is the weekend, I thought I take a break and have some fun with the game from John Chow, the dot com Mogul. Being 3rd place in comparison with other scores I am pretty proud of it, but then that is after a hour of playing it...lol.

His site http://www.Johnchow.com is a web site which he tells his story of how he has made his fortune through his blog. I personally like his blog quite a bit because his blog brings a more raw tone to the table. Unlike other bloggers such as Pro Blogger or Shoemoney, the biggest difference is the realness in his blog on how he communicates with his readers. This is very key! Sometimes we tend to find ourselves trying very hard to polish our writings and miss out on what the "general public" really understands which may differ in our area of expertise. To really convey quality information to your readers, you must speak in the same language and that is to never assume any understandings about the subject. John Chow does a very good job on it and I find it very easy to follow and it has definitely helped enhance some of my knowledge.

A huge trap that bloggers have fallen tends to be the failure to communicate to their users. Without direct connection between the readers and the quality information on the post, readers will most often lose site of the content because it is at heart a blog and not a book. It is similar to you going to a speech taught by a well known business CEO. Although the speeches are always great, you will almost always failed to connect to the heart of the topic directly. A bad tendency that I see even with very experienced bloggers, is whenever the blogger has a very strong group of loyal readers they would tend to focus on the group too closely that they fail to see and exploit its new traffic in connection. Whether it is due to the lack of knowledge from readers or understanding, bloggers should never fail to understand the purpose of blogs and the reason why people like reading them instead of a book.

His blog brings many of his experiences in a very transparent way. Although not extremely polished, I find it to be the advantage of John Chow for the readers to relate to his blog. As a Canadian, he's just like any other person like you and I. After starting a blog back in December of 2005 he is making thousands of dollars blogging. What this means to every reader or writer of blogs is that anyone can make money through blogging. It's a definite a good read and an encouragement to all bloggers. Do keep in mind though, that he has kept up the blog for more then 2 years, so no if you want to pull a fast one it ain't happening. He owns TTZ and other web sites, you can check him out here! Have a good weekend.

-Swapw
"Making money smart"

Johnchow
Blogging
Swapw
Blog+Make+money
Make+money+smart
Make+money+online

Blogitive Directory Network announced

2007-05-25T17:07:00.000-07:00

* Intro to blogitive (0:00 - 0:21)

* Blogitive explored (0:22 - 0:40)

* Blogitive's new program (0:41 - 3:27)

* Wrap up (3:28 - 3:55)

Here's the direct tutorial from Blogitive, enjoy.

Http://my.blogitive.com/screencasts/directory_tutorial

Like many similar network that I've introduced in the past such as Payperpost, Blogsvertise, and Smorty; Blogitive is just another great way to make money by providing advertisers with a review in your blog. Blogitive however is taking some additional steps to shift away from its fierce competition, and that is by incorporating a newly announced Directory Network recently to provide bloggers an additional way to make money which I do talk in depth in my video blog today.

Although the Blogitive Directory Network does seem to be a promising solution for Wordpress users and web site owners but for the rest of us who uses free blogger sites this solution does not seem to geared toward our side of the market. However, we are still qualified to do the traditional reviews for advertisers through Blogitive.

For Wordpress users it is a very easy and free solution to monetize without doing much, yes literally without doing anything at all. The basic concept of Blogitive Directory Network revolves around the idea that advertisers would pay for links toward Wordpress bloggers on their web site in an annual basis. Bloggers would get to set their own price and adjust them as they wish once a year. It is suggested by Blogitive that links should be priced initially at around $10 per year since this program has just being launched however that is not to say that if your blog has a higher traffic of visitors that you should settle less. How the profit split is simple, 85% for the blogger and 15% for Blogitive. Since Blogitive has only launched this program officially by providing users with offers this week, it is still young so be sure to register yourself with Blogitive if you have a Wordpress blog so you can be the first ones to be reviewed by the advertisers. Competition with other bloggers would makes your blog harder to be seen as the time goes with the program so be sure to take advatange of it as soon as possible.

-Swapw
"Making money smart"

Blogitive
Advertisement+reviews
Hyper+links
Swapw
Make+money
Make+money+smart

A Blog's Silent Killer

2007-05-24T14:30:00.000-07:00

* Intro (0:00 - 0:23)

* Blog's silent killer (0:24 - 1:29)

* Visitor's trouble (1:30 - 2:52)

* Ways to check for problems (2:53 - 4:09)

* Wrap up (4:10 - 4:26)

Many of us blog everyday in hopes that our blog would be recognized or through it to make some money but did you know that there's one area a lot of us overlook which may potentially kill off all of our traffic? Traffic means money and today's topic is an area which I have been treaking around for some time and I do have to say before I continue to write that I was at one point failing to recognize the problem. It is something crucial and as a blogger I wish someone would have told me earlier.

The silent killer lies within the widget itself that we embedd into our blog itself. I do talk extensively in details through my video but it's important to understand the nature of each widgets or code that you add into your blog. Elimination of any pop-up is very key when selecting a widget to install to your blog and be sure to always check your privacy report to see what type of programs each widgets bring to your site. Failing to eliminate these unwanted pop-ups, it will kill your traffic not only from some of your local visitors but in a globally scaled standpoint. To make money smart, it's not running after the traffic necessarily but how to retain your target audiences!

-Swapw
"Making money smart"

Now, due to a risen popularity of link exchanges and Technorati favorite exchanges I thought I provide an offer out to those that are interested in these exchanges. Leave me a comment and I love to exchange if your blog is in some relations to the topics that I cover.

Blog
Blogging
Swapw
Making+money
Making+money+smart
Traffic

Maximizing Bank Interests

2007-05-23T16:24:00.000-07:00

If you are keeping in track with stocks, you may already realize that we have already pass the all time high in the Dow for over 13600 points. Recently it has been hovering around that point and now that it's going a little bit downward to a little bit above 13500 many investors are getting really cautious about the whole stock market. On top of that, the fact that Greenspan has came out mentioning the possible effect of oil driving toward the economy downward has definitely shaken the market

What happens when the stock is not a safe spot to invest? Well, we have to look into the banks to secure our money. Common bank interest rates are really low, most of us are probably getting close to nothing with Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Washington Mutual. Regular accounts such as a money market account, checking account, or savings account is probably making us close to nothing in interests alone. Through today's video I will discuss what type of banks to really place your money on to maximize your interest earnings from banks. Beneath, I will place the links to these banks it'll make it easier for you guys if you are interested in them! :)

Washington Mutual (5.00%) - http://spe.atdmt.com/lp/wamu/bundled1.html

Citibank (5.00%) with $50 added to your account when you pay 3 consecutive payments - Here's the link!

Emigran Direct (5.05%) - Here's the link!

HSBC (5.05%) - http://www.hsbcdirect.com/1/2/1/offer?code=PPGD390000&WT.srch=1

I don't know about you guys, but I am a strong believer in diversifying my money throughout various avenues. So I would also suggest looking into Prosper.com a web site which I've talked about in the past on loaning to diversify your profolio. For beginners, your best bet is to follow the so called "group leaders". They are people who started these lending groups and most of the time, they are usually more experienced lenders. If the person is seeking a loan and a major portion of his loan is bidded by the "group leader", chances are that it is more likely that it's a safer lend then suppose to a group leader not taking any action toward the requested loan. Obviously, you should always do your own research before jumping into anything. You can read my previous post about Prosper.com here.

-Swapw
"Making money smart"

* Intro and savings account (0:00 - 0:32)

* Savings account explained (0:33 - 1:31)

* Maximizing savings account (1:32 - 2:49)

* Fear and solution of using online savings account (2:50 - 4:09)

* Diversify and wrap up (4:10 - 5:14)

Bank
Swapw
Making+money+smart
Prosper
loan

Payperpost a way to both publicize and make money!

2007-05-22T20:26:00.000-07:00

After talking about many companies which pays bloggers to blog, here's another company that does exactly that but even bigger and that is Payperpost. Through my blog, I will explain to you why Payperpost is a good company to bank on and what you can do to take advantage of it.

As you compose blog reviews on certain companies through Payperpost, it provides you new information about the web and new services so it's also a great way to always stay on top of web news or new services out in the market. Besides earning through posting on your blog on reviews, I would say generally speaking Payperpost runs in a similar fashion to Blogsvertise or Smorty; companies which I have introduced in the past. Payperpost is pretty open to show all the opportunities that you can take and did I mention that the higher PR, the higher they pay you to review? Well, yes they do and if your blog has a PR6 some of the opportunities even pay you up to $150!

There is however one area that I do want to mention that I find Payperpost unique and that is different from Blogsvertise or Smorty which I believe can provide significant impact and that is the option for publishers to spread the word out to the blogsphere. If you are a new blogger or a blogger that wants to quickly be recognized in the blogworld, Payperpost offers you or "publishers" in their team to publicize. The steps are somewhat similar to an advertiser application and it requires you to pay bloggers to post, however I have already heard several well aqainted web masters in spilling out their success in publicizing through Payperpost.

I have actually found it to be a rather unique feature that many people leave out when they talk about Payperpost. Besides these info, as long as your blog is 3 months old you will meet their qualification and go and get yourself applied and make that money smart! -

-Swapw
"Making money smart"

* Intro to Payperpost (0:00 - 0:28)

* Requirements of Payperpost (0:29 - 1:33)

* The Payperpost difference (1:34 - 2:33)

* The publisher option (2:34 - 4:09)

* Wrap up (4:10 - 4:30)

Payperpost
Swapw
Making+money+smart
Blog

Reviewme, a blogger's authority to make money

2007-05-21T12:15:00.000-07:00

Reviewme is true a blogger's authority to make money. Why? Because Reviewme has one of the highest payout rate in the industry for bloggers along with its effectiveness to deliver quality reviews. Each review requested from advertisers for bloggers would cost them a minimum of $40. That's a lot of money for a simple review! From programs that I have introduced in the past such as Blogsvertise or Smorty, Reviewme pays close to double or triple the amount of its competitors.

Although Reviewme has a more tedious selection process in their acceptance in blogs as stated in my video with a higher requirement of Technorati, Alexa, and RSS feed rank, it has become almost a status symbol once you have been accepted. Many well known bloggers such as Johnchow and Maki uses reviewme and it definitely provides Reviewme with a lot of creditabiltiy. Obviously they've also offer great features for bloggers such as assignment notification and a choice of accepting the assignment or rejecting it. Unless you are a newbie in blogging, Reviewme is definitely something worth looking into. Now, that's not to say that you should abandon other companies such as Blogsvertise or Smorty because to make money smart you always have to diversify yourself so you don't run into trouble when one doesn't work out.

-Swapw
"Making money smart"

* Intro to Alexa and Reviewme (0:00 - 0:25)

* Reviewme compared with others (0:26 - 1:09)

* Requirements for Reviewme (1:10 - 3:40)

* Limits of Reviewme (3:41 - 4:13)

* Wrap up (4:14 - 4:46)

Reviewme
Alexa+rank
Technorati
Swapw
Making+money+smart
Advertisement+reviews
Monetizing

Xpander Communications (For business owners only)

2007-05-19T23:03:00.000-07:00

Aiight, the guys from Xpander Communications have asked me to help write up a review so here it is below.

Xpander Communications is a company which sales VoIP Small Business Phone Systems to obviously small businesses. Before we dig in further on the business model which they focuses on we must first understand the core of VOIP. What's VOIP? for those of us that don't know what a VOIP stands for it is in short voice over internet protocol. This technology is mostly associated with the idea of telephone over the interenet and it is something many preceived to be the next generation of telephone system for each and every household.

Now if you have a business like myself, a very common way to set-up your office regarding telephone can be troublesome. You would first purchase a phone system along with telephones, then you would have to consult with your service provider separately to ensure your telephone service is compatible which can create many headaches. That's not even talking about expansion! You can only imagine how much additional headaches that would bring into the table.

From my review of Xpander Communications' service offering, I believe the most compelling part about their company is that they offer you one phone system throughout all of the branches that you have throughout the country! This itself eliminates a lot of unwanted headaches and it definitely saves a lot of time. Obviously with VOIP computer system that eliminates big phone bills so that's always a good added bonus. I think the guys from Xpander Communications do have an interesting business solution and plan in their hands so if you're looking for this type of service, this is not a bad place to check it out. You can find their link here VoIP Small Business Phone Systems.

-Swapw

Authority of Alexa & Technorati shouldn't be underestimated

2007-05-19T17:13:00.000-07:00

Many of us may have already have a solid understanding of Alexa rank and Technorati, but a lot of times we do not see the importance of Alexa or Technorati as something that is vitally crucial. Through my video, I will explain why both of these web sites are something that you should definitely not overlook and the potential both web sites bring to the table is definitely a lot higher then one can imagine. Many of us rely on search engine optimization or making connections throughout different web rings to boost our traffic, but when was the last time that you take a serious look at your Alexa rank and Technorati?

Often times, we are too heavily focused on audiences according to our demographic origin that we miss out on the scheme of blogs globally. As we all know, traffic is the origin of income in your blog in any type of settings that I've blogged about. Whether it's writing articles, complete offers, forum postings, advertisements etc. When you have optimized your blog in the blogger world globally, watch out! You have something different that a lot of others have often overlooked. It's not about the quantity but the quality of things you do with your blog, remember only doing things the smart way will you make smart money!

-Swapw
"Making money smart"

* Intro to Alexa and Technorati (0:00 - 0:43)

* Alexa explained (0:44 - 2:44)

* Technorati explained (2:45 - 4:00)

* Importance of the two sites (4:01 - 4:27)

* Wrap up (4:28 - 4:39)

Swapw
Making+money+smart
Technorati
Alexa+rank

Smorty, a new company that pays to blog!

2007-05-18T18:30:00.000-07:00

I've recently discovered a new program which pays bloggers to blog and it's called Smorty. It has a very decently made web site and I have to say it's quite impressive from what they are offering so far. You can see in depth of my views with Smorty through my video and overall I believe they are competitive to offer against their competitor Blogsvertise. Smorty's payout is weekly, which is one of the best in the industry of get paid to blog type web sites. The payment method Smorty uses is through Paypal which is great because it is similar to wire transfer, the money comes in instantly. Smorty also offers immediate assignments which is actually really rare in these get paid for blogging companies. It sounds really funny but a lot of these pay to blog companies usually do not offer bloggers any task after they are accepted. As a blogger, it is not very uncommon to wait just for one assignment. It can well be the fact that Smorty is still the new kid in the block within the industry that they are here to definitely gain their market share and presence but as for us bloggers, it's definitely an advantage that you want to take and not miss!

Here's the link - blog for money

The video above is a quick and candid introduction to myself to my readers and viewers thanks to Francis who asked. You can check his blog about bloggers at http://bloglives.blogspot.com/ enjoy.

-Swapw
"Making money smart"

* Intro to Smorty (0:00 - 0:27)

* In depth look at Smorty (0:28 - 2:25)

* PR and misc info to Smorty (2:26 - 3:36)

* Wrap up (3:37 - 4:40)

Smorty
Swapw
Making+money+smart
Paid+to+blog

Domain parking, a real Monetizing solution?

2007-05-17T08:39:00.000-07:00

There are quite a few advocates out over the web for those who would like to pursue the option of domain parking. Through the video, I will explain to you what domain parking is and my opinions about domain parking in general. There are three primary disadvantages with domain parking:

1. It will not be indexed by major search engines - This is a major disadvantage, any site without being indexed will hardly be noticed by natural traffic.

2. No help using traffic exchange sites - It is against TOS to most domain parking hosting sites to join traffic exchange sites. Even if the web site is not caught by domain parking hosts, there's little or no effect to enhance traffic into domain since no benefit is brought to the visitors visiting the web site itself.

3. Expect very little organic traffic - Since most major .com or names of the web sites are taken, secondary names makes it harder for organic traffic to flood into these domain parking sites.

I would personally advise shying away from Domain parking unless you do currently own a lot of web sites yourself or is offered a real good deal from another owner of mutiple good sites. Be sure to be real careful if you do pursue the path of domain parking for it is a lot less profitable then it was a few years ago.

-Swapw
"Making money smart"

* Intro and Domain parking (0:00 - 0:32)

* Domain parking explained (0:33 - 2:13)

* Issues revolves around Domain parking (2:14 - 4:54)

* Wrap up (4:55 - 5:18)

Advertisement
Domain+parking
Reviews
Swapw
Making+money+smart

Don't bombard advertisements

2007-05-16T03:21:00.000-07:00

It has been sometime since I have gotten back and blog but I'm glad to be back from my brother's graduation and life in CA.

Advertisements are the main income for many bloggers like myself and web sites, but I've seen it done over and over again from both new bloggers and experienced bloggers a fatal mistake that is surprisingly not uncommon and I have decided to talk about it today. We've all seen web sites where advertisements are everywhere in that it completely confuses the readers of where to navigate which causes the most of us to close the window immediately. Other web sites where it provides with very little or no content making the web site seemed very irrelevant and others with good content but so hard to navigate that it eventually loses all of its reader's interest.

Through my video, I do go in depth of why these type of money generating techniques are extremely unsuccessful ways to generating a profit and what you should do to really generate consistent profits over your blog. You might be surprised, sometimes having very good selections in a few advertisements may actually generate more profits then you ever thought it would making it a smart way to generate money!

-Swapw
"Making money smart"

* Intro and advertisement congestion (0:00 - 0:50)

* Common temptations (0:51 - 1:52)

* The problem behind it (1:53 - 2:31)

* How to make real money & my advice (2:32 - 3:36)

* Wrap up (3:37 - 4:13)

Advertisement
Residual+income
swapw
Making+money+smart

Making Money Smart Survey

2007-05-12T22:13:00.000-07:00

Guys, I'm out again and I won't be back before Monday. This time it is for my brother's graduate school graduation. Yes, I am getting old and as I am attending his graduate school graduation I felt a bit tired and I can sense my age is slowly creeping up to me. He's graduated today with a masters degree from Urbana Champaign in the business school majoring in Finance. I hate to slow things down but I guess since I'm on the road, my posts will not be as consistant as I would like it to be.

However, I feel that it's also probably a great time to do a quick poll on the subject that YOU would most like hearing about. I broke it down to five categories below. Let me know.

1. Generalized money details throughout the web
2. Web site enhancements to to assist web money generating
3. Combination of both
4. Combination of both and my personal money making journey reports
5. Other _______

Let me know through your comments and I will take it into serious consideration and enhance the site into another level when I get back to my apartment to move forth in our money making tutorials. Have a great weekend! :)

-Swapw
"Making money smart"

money money+making making+money+smart swapw survey opinions

Making Money with Bucks4banners

2007-05-11T06:48:00.000-07:00

How does it feel to get paid to do nothing but simply placing banners into your web site? I love it and I bet you do too. Yes, these guys are the real deal and through my video today I will introduce you a web site that does exactly that. The amazing part of it is that these guys from Bucks4banners pays you every month that you have their banners up in your site! No, they don't just provide you with a one time payment but they actually pay you every month that you have their banners up in your web site.

The only inconvenient thing that I've thought when I've examined the web site is that you'll have to place banners in three of your web pages and that they pay in Euros. You might think, "oh man...Euros it doesn't apply to us Americans" and the answer is NO it's not true. Euros, although may seemed inconvenient to the some of us but I truly believe that Euros will continue to comb and it is indeed not a bad way of investment in itself if you are looking in the long hall.

If you don't mind about these types of conditions, it's a pretty cool way to stash up residual incomes for doing nothing. From my personal examination, I can't seem to tell any tricks or gimmicks from the web site so I would give it a go for anyone who's interested in getting paid! To make money smart, the key is to stash up your residual incomes monthly and as these small amounts build up the only person truly benefits in the end is yourself. It's always a good idea to pay attention on opportunities like this and take advantage of it while it's still around. Since the time frame of my discovery in this web site is still quite new, I am also in the process of applying to Bucks4banners myself and I would love to exchange views with anyone of you guys in your experiences!

-Swapw
"Making money smart"

* Intro and introduction about Bucks4banners (0:00 - 0:22)

* Details about the web site (0:23 - 1:30)

* Advantages this web site offers vs its competition (1:31 - 3:50)

* Wrap up (3:51 - 4:14)

bucks4banners swapw making+money+smart investment euros marketing

Monetizing your site through web enhancements

2007-05-10T03:45:00.000-07:00

To see this video with caption click here!

It doesn't take a genius to make or create a site. If you know how to make a simple web site or sign up with blogger, you will be in good shape in creating one. Most of the time, you will be introduced to Google Adsense as one of the first ways of making money over your web site which gives many of us the idea, "hay, maybe I can just make a living out of this." As you continue to blog about yourself and your life, you would soon realize the deadly truth that there are no visitors that come to your site. And if they do, they would seldomly click on any ads if at all.

What separates sucessful web masters from the norm is to really dig into how to individualize your site in an attempt to generate some traffic. The problem then comes when you are trying to tweak your site and realize that additional programming tricks are required here and there. Just like you, I myself have been there and stuck many times and I seriously wonder where can I go for these type of help?

Through my video blog, you will see that I am introducing you a web site called the W3schools. It is one of the web site that I go to for reference from time to time. Whatever topic that you blog about it never hurts to make money and to make money smart, it's important that you always tweak your site here and there. W3schools offers exactly some of the tools for that, whether the language you write your site is in php, flash, html, or java, it offers real helpful tools for webmasters like you and I. The best part of it all is that it's completely free!

I really hope that you can really use it to your own advantage, it's a very good web site from my personal experience and I would highly recommend it to anyone. To monetize your web site and to make money smart, test things here and there. Whatever works for you may not work for someone else, always test it until you see the best results for yourself. Remember, content is king and having a good web site makes it even better! Good luck and grab those cash!

-Swapw
PS: I apologize if I have been slow to respond recently. Since I have been spending some of my time in learning affiliate marketing, if proven to be successful I will be sure to come back and share with you guys with some cool tips in it. Remember, while you are trying to make money with other programs you can always make money with Adbux and Cashtap and in case you missed my blog about it, check it out here http://swapw.blogspot.com/2007/04/how-to-maximize-earnings-with-your.html.

-Swapw
"Making money smart"

* Intro and problems web masters face (0:00 - 0:45)

* What I've learned and W3Schools (0:46 - 1:20)

* The language W3Schools implies (1:21 - 2:00)

* Wrap up (2:01 - 2:37)

webmaster swapw making+money+smart marketing monetizing

E-Gold reviewed

2007-05-08T04:39:00.000-07:00

To see this video with caption click here!

E-gold, a growing internet currency which has gained through the past few months. Is it safe? Is it real? Is it a good investment? I will provide you the details of how I personally feel about the growing phenomenon of people jumping into the whole ordeal through my video. I am not a very big risk jumper unless I understand the whole details shown by the market and from my understanding and research, I found e-gold not to be a preference of use on my recommendations to my readers. As you can see from the graph below, throughout the history of gold that it always had a steady flow of increase until the past couple years where the gold was then traded heavily due to the instability of the US economy.

Although traditionally seemed as a good and steady investment, we have to be more cautious when gold prices reached record highs in a very unusual high percentage of growth. Like real estate, this can mean a bubble that's waiting to burst which I believe heavily just on the actual gold market alone. Besides just looking at the gold itself, e-gold is another entity that functions separately in a similar fashion to paypal. One of the biggest difference between the two is where Paypal if proper explanation were to be provided allows the transaction to be reversed versus e-gold where it is permenant. Whenever there's a transaction whether it is e-gold to the dollar, the dollar into e-gold, or e-gold money into the actual gold metal, there are always transaction associated fees with each and everyone of them.

Unless you have a fairly decent heavy amount of e-gold in your account which makes e-gold actually profitable with its price continue to rise at a steady pace, to make back your original investment without losing much poses a serious challenge. Not to mention any type of transaction that you make with your e-gold whether it is an investment or exchange that there are no shortage of of scam artists who take the advantage of irreversible transactions between e-gold. Last but not least, you will be required to make up all the transaction fees in your e-gold account just to simply break even!

* Intro of what e-gold is (0:00 - 0:37)
* How do you really get e-gold (0:38 - 1:25)
* Gold in general and where it's going (1:26 - 2:52)
* Downside and recommendation(2:53 - 3:52)
* Wrap up (3:53 - 4:18)

e-gold swapw making+money+smart investment gold

My good friend's wedding

2007-05-07T04:12:00.000-07:00

Aiight, I am finally back at home today. It feels good to be back home finally. The long road trip has definitely takena toll on me. To those of you who were wondering where I was for the past few days, I was up at San Jose to a friend's wedding. It was definitely a blast!

I will be sure to resten up today so we can all go back and talk about money! Remember that I've talked about sharing some good stuff from my trip? Well, here it is below. I hope you guys had a great weekend as well!

The reception food, yes this is the "real" shark fin soup. One of the best in town.

Just a mixture of great seafood and beans.

My good buddy and I just hanging out after the wedding.

Bride and groom in the middle, both are my good buddies during my college days.

The resevoir, that all of us Californians drink from and it's depleting!

-Swapw