How To Make Money | The Definitive Don’ts

Promotional Items: Mission Possible

Most people give to their customers and to their employees promo products. And there’s a great sense in this tradition. Usually, these items are given as a symbol of an organization membership, being offered at different promotional events, like expos or other meetings. Although promo items represent a nice surprise for those who receive them, their main mission is a bit different. Promotional products are meant to consolidate the relationship between the giver and the receiver.

Simple promotional items as promo mugs or custom keychains express their duty in a nice surprise for those who receive them, and at the same time they are meant to be used in order to expand advertising exposure. Their next mission is to create a brand name’s awareness, which means build a bridge, a strong path to a customer’s loyalty. By doing that, promo items improve the performance of the employees too, as the brand becomes more and more known and the atmosphere within the company more united. Building show traffic and boosting direct mail response has been proven by the usage of promo items. Research states, that a person who receives a promotional product can remember the advertiser even after six months after they were given the item! Moreover, promotional items increase the direct mail response mail rate considerably. They do also dramatically improve the traffic for the products of a certain exhibitor.

If speaking about where this dream may come true, we can not but mention that the most efficient promotional gifts are trade show giveaways. Just because everyone likes to receive a gift once in a while. And even if this gift has a marketing value. That’s the main reason why the adequate trade show giveaways build goodwill. That’s the reason why they can bring the message to the masses, and furthermore create a brand awareness.

Bye Bye Blogrush…

As you may have noticed, the BlogRush widget has disappeared from this site. If you ever want to remind yourself of how not to make money online, go glare at the empty space where the widget used to be. That space should be a reminder that following the crowd is never the way to go.

I decided to try Blogrush not because I wanted to be a sheep, but to rather see if it was a viable means of attracting traffic. I discovered within the first month that it wasn’t. I believe the widget brought me a total of ~40 unique visitors over its four month lifespan. 10 uniques a month does not constitute the takeover of a good piece of real estate on any blog.

If you fell for BlogRush, there’s no need to feel bad. We all make mistakes - it’s human nature. Just remember to be more thoughtful next time. For those of you who swarmed to BlogRush after getting stung by Agloco, shame on you. While you probably didn’t lose money on either, you should have learned the first time around that following the crowd is not the answer.

From now on, I encourage all of you to think for yourselves. I know the stakes weren’t very high with BlogRush or Agloco, but the future could hold considerable stakes. Think everything through and don’t act on impulse!

And The Beat Goes On…

I really wish I had an excuse for my recent 25-day vacation. Unfortunately, I don’t - I’m guilty on all counts. With that being said, I’m really impressed at the number of RSS subscribers which have stuck around despite my recent vacation. This goes to show that I must be doing something right.

Starting today, the blog will return to its regular posting schedule. While I understand that many of you enjoyed returning to Malignition to find it in dire need of updates, it’s time for a little change.

On a little side note, I wouldn’t suggest that you perfrom this type of vanishing act on your own blog. As many of you know, blog inactivity can do major damage in terms of traffic generation. So the next time you get lazy, either publish a post which you have saved in Wordpress or hire a writer to develop a few posts for you. Negligence is not the answer!

Some cool things are in store for Malignition this month. Since I’m on the subject, I might as well give away a little spoiler - we have some quality “How to make money” tutorials in the making. Now that most of you have an idea about the things you should avoid in making money online, it’s time you learn WHAT you should do. Stay tuned, this month’s going to be very exciting!

Repeatedly Rehashing Posts From Other Blogs

We’ve all at one time or another stared blankly at our computer monitors hoping to have an idea for a post just come to us. Sometimes, this simply doesn’t happen. So what do we do? We head over to another blog for some “inspiration”. This inspiration usually resurfaces in the form of a basically identical blog post. While there’s nothing wrong with this, too many bloggers have made a habit out of rehashing posts from other blogs. This is simply not ok.

A Blog Is NOT Meant To Stimulate Deja Vu

Most of us know what Deja Vu is - the sensation that we’ve seen or experienced something before. What many of us don’t want to comprehend is that this type of sensation shouldn’t be aroused in an internet surfer - especially a blog reader. Visitors come to your blog hungry for unique content - not the same re-worded garbage they read on that other blog. Is that asking for so much? I wouldn’t think so.

“But I Can’t (Don’t) Want to Write My OWN Content!”

I hear bloggers complaining that they can’t write their own content on an almost daily basis. News flash - nobody cares. When you started your “How to Make Money Online” blog, you signed yourself up for that task. If you planned on rehashing posts from the get-go, I won’t be the first to tell you that you’re wasting your time.

The truth of the matter is that most people CAN write their own posts, but they just don’t want to. When their blog doesn’t take off, they shift focus and make it their mission to discourage others. Don’t be one of these stupid people. Stop being lazy and get up and write a few posts.

Some of us can only dedicate a day or two out of the whole week to write content for our blogs. This is no excuse for rehasing posts. Suck it up and spend a few hours writing several quality posts. Set them to post automatically and you’re done. No need to worry about writing a new post every single day.

If for some reason you really can’t develop your own content - hire somebody to do it. You can find some very capable writers in forums and on some freelance websites. While they do charge for their services, you’ll find that the charges are anything but excessive. Make sure to conduct enough research before hiring a specific writer.

If You Don’t Get With The Schedule

Nobody’s going to stop you from completely ignoring me. However, let me warn you - if you give no real value to your visitors, your blog will most likely get nowhere. Sure you might get some organic traffic here and there, but you will find that it won’t do much for you. Invest time, creativity and effort in your blog and success will come knocking at your door.

posts rehashed content visitors inspiration

Google Delivers A Blow To Adsense Publishers

As if Google hasn’t wreaked enough havoc these past few months, today the Adsense team announced their intentions to modify the Adsense referral rules. You might be thinking they’ve decided to increase payouts for those who’ve been sending motivated Adsense publishers their way - think again. Now I warn you, what’s to follow may be a little shocking to those who’ve been successfully dabbling with Adsense referrals. Take a seat before reading on.

Last year, Google adopted a payment system for Adsense referrals which alloted all Adsense publishers the opportunity to earn a nice sum of money for referrals they sent Google’s way. The system worked a little something like this:

• You refer Bob to Adsense, Bob makes $5 within 180 days, he also scores you $5
• Let’s say Bob makes $100 within 180 days, Google awards you $250
• You refer Bob along with 24 other people to Adsense - they all make $100 within 180 days - you get a $2,000 bonus

Now that we’re all caught up, let’s see how Google’s decided to spin this around.

• You refer Bob to Adsense, Bob makes $100 within 180 days, you make $100

Most of you are probably thinking WTF. Don’t worry, you’re among thousands of Adsense publishers thinking the same thing. I’m sorry to inform you that the cruelty doesn’t stop there. Foreign publishers - brace yourselves.

Unfortunately, Google has decided to bar all publishers living outside North America, Japan, and Latin America from participating in the Adsense referral program. How Google came to this decision is beyond my understanding. I mean, there are undoubtedly numerous publishers who have made Google good money from these barred areas. Why Google’s decided to sever their financial contributions is beyond me.

The onslaught of this news has really got me questioning whether some of the people at Google are actually qualified to hold their respective positions. How in the world can you bar people from making YOU money based on their geographical locations? It would seem loads more sense to me to bar those without the appropriate sites from participating in the Adsense referrals program. If you have a How To Make Money Online blog that’s sending Google tons of referrals, where’s the sense in keeping Adsense referrals off it just because its owner lives in Germany? NONE!!

To wrap up this post, I would like to directly address Google. Google, you’re making very dumb and rash decisions. You’re annoying many people to the point where they’re considering entirely abandoning they’re Adsense publisher accounts. Stop playing these stupid games before you drive away all of your publishers.

adsense referrals payout google publishers