Transitions

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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!

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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Fighting back against cyber crime

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

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



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Stumbleupon

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


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Automated Adsense blogs, does it work?

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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Yahoo Publisher versus Google Adsense

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

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

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?

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


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How to sell your text links spots?

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




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Monetize your site with Text Link Ads

* 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


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Affiliate Marketing explained II

* 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



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How to gain your traffic besides Google

* 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



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