Tuesday, April 29, 2008

bombclick

BOMBCLICK - somebody asked this question in istorya.

As far as I know, bombclick is a slang for the act of constantly and abusively clicking on your ads. Whether it be you, or another person as far as timbuktu, anyone who keeps on clicking on your ads. Google has a way (that I don't know what type of tool) of finding the number of clicks if it came from the same origin or IP address and can trace that down.

That's why in the terms and conditions of Google, they specifically tell you NOT to click on your own ads nor tell anyone to click on your ads. It purposely defeats the purpose of whole adsense principle in the first place. A person clicks on an advertisement in another person's site because he wants to know more about the product or service that was advertised.

There are actually a number of videos out there that discuss the importance of NOT EVER clicking on your ads! Because if Google finds out about this, then they will definitely ban you and you can't reapply anymore because it's under your own name.

So please, do yourself a favor, don't click; nor tell anyone to click!

sorry for the silence

Sorry guys, I thought I could update as soon as I get back here. However, I've been pretty busy and tired from all of this updating. hehe. I thought I could provide more tips, most likely I can; but it's either that I don't have much time or I'm already dead-tired to sleep when I go home and check some information. Don't worry, I'm not gone; it's just that I can't update. I'm just posting this entry to say I'm still alive.

I know there are some people who'd drop by but wouldn't say so. It would benefit a lot though, that you'd give a comment on how I've expressed my thoughts with this online earning data. At least I'd know that people do read them as it also, in some way, boosts my morale in keeping you posted on how to earn while blogging. There's actually a shoutbox on the right side of this page for you to give a quick shout out.

Anyway, will close this entry now. See yah!

Thursday, April 24, 2008

off for the weekend

So I guess I won't be able to update this site over the weekend. I'll be off somewhere. That's why while I'm gone (as if I'll be gone for how many weeks), I'll think about some proper topics to discuss when I get back.

I really want to get serious with earning online and making some money through this.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

traffic

As said in the previous post, we're going to talk about how soloflighted.com started to gain traffic to my site..

  1. Submitted my site to Google
  1. Told some of my friends about it to add to the traffic.
  1. Blog-hopped, left some comments and exchanged links - the rule is usually i scratch your back, you scratch mine.
  1. Applied for blog networks (blogcatalog, mybloglog).
  1. Posted my site to forums (caution: don't post your site to just about anywhere if you feel you might get fired from your work because of the content of your entries).
  1. Put pictures on my site - right now, most people are more inclined to seeing pictures in sites rather than read the entries. Although the articles are supposed to be the main attractions of your site, readers would catch sight of pictures first.
  1. Post entries that are of good quality. It's useless if you just post spam in your site; as eventually, people will want to read more on the content of your entries rather than just a bunch of hullabaloos; unless of course your hullabaloos are worth reading.

Caution: Don't post your site to just about anywhere if you feel you don't want a lot of people you know to read your blogs; or if you feel you might get fired from your work because of the content of your entries talking about work! Be sensible enough. Remember that these are just what I did for my site.

I know there are a number of ways on how to increase traffic, but I'm taking my time slowly now. Besides, this is all that I know. hehe. If you have some more tips, you can post them in the comment section; as I'm also willing to learn more. I'm finding some ways *ehem* proper ways in order to attract good traffic on my site.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Page Rank

Page Rank is Google's way of measuring your page's worth. It is an indicator of the value of a certain page in the world wide web.

It can be a combination of different factors on how it is being tallied and calculated, It may be because of the number of websites linking back to your site and the number of unique visitors (not spam!).

In a layman's point of view, it shows that if you have a high page rank, then you have a high chance of being "WANTED" by different advertisers. Because if you have a high rank in the eyes of Google, then more so do advertisers want you more. It is represented with the numerical values 0 until 10; with zero being the lowest and of course, ten being highest.

Honestly, I don't have that much understanding how to increase the page rank. However, to give you a clue, my site: soloflighted.com was still starting to generate some traffic; suddenly it went up to a page rank of 3! I was ecstatic. However, because I had to go somewhere during a holiday break, I was not able to update my blog. When I came back to check it, *&#^*&^$, it went down to being 0. Right now, I'm having a hard time recovering it.

What I use to check my page rank is prchecker.info. You might wonder when you check your blog/site's rank by entering your URL there, it might get a result of NA. This is because your page is not yet indexed/recorded in Google; because most likely it's still new, or nobody visits that page often enough to make a mark in the cyberworld.

Of course, if your site is still new, you won't get a page rank that easily as it takes some time to generate traffic to your site. Just to leave a note, page rank is not the be all and end all, but I can say that it does have a huge impact if you have a high position.

But what I did to try to gain traffic from different sites out there to at least get a higher rank will be discussed next.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

pause

I'm running out of topics to write. haha. I can't believe it came to this point already, this early? I was so sure I had a lot of information I could give to people out there; but right now there's a drought of data in my head.

I guess this is just a phase, since I haven't had enough sleep and I'm off to work after a couple of hours. sigh, another 5 day-working spree.

Anyway, if you have some questions, feel free to ask. As you can probably seem, this blog is still new. So I don't have that much visitors, which means I'm not that busy. hehe.

I'm just pausing for awhile as I'll be finding some more topics to talk about in order to earn money online through blogging as well find other rackets (not scam!) out there to further widen my knowledge in getting rich quickly

Ciao!

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Paid Posts

So this is where I was able to generate my money... through paid posts.

There are a number of sites that are willing to hire bloggers to write a certain topic or interest. These are just some that I can mention at the back of my head. I know there are a number, but since I don't have first-hand experience I don't really have much knowledge. But since I don't think it's that hard to comprehend, I think I can explain it properly anyway.

Actually, these sites are just platforms for advertisers and bloggers alike. Advertisers are looking for advertisers who are looking for bloggers to blog about their products. But because I'm a blogger, I'll be focusing more on a blogger's perspective.

First, you need to sign up for these sites. Of course, in the process of signing up, there are some requirements and conditions in the process (e.g. your blog should be 2-3 months old, must have X number of entries, must be regularly updated etc.).

It may take awhile for your blog to get approved depending on how they will be able to review your site. So don’t fret that it may take some time, because it WILL take some time.

These paid post sites are where you need to apply so you can check some “opportunities/bids/tasks". These tasks can range from $3-$200 or even more, again, depending on some certain qualifications. Sometimes, they will accept only those PageRanks (will be discussing this in future posts) that are high. But there are some that are not that hard to bid for; and that's where we're targeting more. Since I can't demand for much (who am I, right?), I'm taking things slowly, and applying for bids that are quite okay for my range.

These tasks also have certain requirements (e.g. it should have an X number of words, should have some keywords mandated by the advertiser, should be posted on or before *date*, etc.). Once you follow their steps, and once they review your work; they'll approve it and you can get your payout!

Note: I'm not so sure how long the cycle for the payout would be cause I'm not good with calendars. But I got my first payout after a month, and I'm still running on my second month through paid blogging at soloflighted.com.

I'll try to post some useful tips to talk about paid posts some more.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

from a reader

I'm so glad that somebody took the time to email me when I posted a topic in istorya. With her permission, I'm putting her response here since she's interested with how I'm able to earn online; so in turn, people who are interested with the idea may also find some useful tips in return.

This is an edited version, I converted some words to English. hehe.

Hi, Ed...is your name Ed?

Anyway, I find your post here about earning through blogging very interesting. It's very nice of you to share this information to help others.

I've been blogging for a year now (on and off though), and I didn't know you could get paid for your blog posts. I would love to know more about it, if you don't mind helping me out. I spend quite a decent amount of time online, and I think it would be best to get something good (like money, perhaps) out of it. I'm married with kids, and I could use whatever little (or big) income that I could get to help the husband with the expenses.

Anyway, I've read your blogs, and and I got intrigued by them. So all I need to do is do the same things that you suggested there? I have an existing Unionbank savings account (Visa), can I use that? How do I link that to a Paypal account?

As for posting...how exactly do you post to get paid? I mean, should you always write about products all the time? I read your Siargao series and it was fun. Did you get paid for it? Can you blog about personal stuff, too? I'll read more of your blog to be able to understand more about this paid post thing. Hehe!

Sorry, I have so many questions. You don't have to answer any of them, but I would appreciate any help or input though. Here is my email address: xxxxxxxx@gmail.com. You can email me there if you're not comfortable with Istorya or anything.

Again, thanks for sharing your "secret" to success. Hehe! Godspeed to you, and may your blog continue to rake in all those moolah. Hehe!

Best regards,
Lourie

This is my reply

Hi Laurie... Laurie is your name as well, right?

Thank you for your long message. That's actually what I want to share here to other people. Since I know my blog's not that high in traffic, and I believe I can reach out to more people using forums. I'm trying to regularly update my other site. Here's the thing, my own blog is at http://soloflighted.com, while the entries on how I was able to earn online is thru http://edearns.blogspot.com. Don't call me nice though, hehe.

Anyway, thanks for reading my post in istorya! hehe. I was able to blog for 3 years for the sole purpose of blogging. Until a friend informed me that I could earn while at it. Honestly, there was a point that I stopped blogging, but I was able to return to this hobby because of this new-found interest of earning money. Especially since my family and I are not that well-off in life. I have 4 other siblings and my parents don't have a stable job. I stopped school cause it's a bit expensive and there are a number of things I want to do that I can't. I already have a job but I feel it's still not enough. That's why I just want to help other people as well, just to spread the news. When I talk to people at work about blogging, some wouldn't believe and find the idea tiring. So I decided to just find other people to talk about it.

About posting... you need to apply for paid post accounts online. That is your blog needs to be approved by paid sites. There are sites who are accepting advertisers and bloggers. The advertisers are the one who are looking for bloggers to write a particular topic and link it to their website. All you have to do is meet their requirements (e.g. you have to update your blog regularly, there should be an X minimum of entries, it should be at least 3 months old, etc.).

Honestly, I'm not the one who applied for my site, since my domain, soloflighted.com, is still a bit new. I didn't have enough hits or traffic. I was just able to migrate all my entries from an old blog to my new one so that explains why I don't have a lot of visitors despite the long list of entries since 2003.

About paypal, I'm not so sure about the savings account. But it should accept a credit card. I think it's okay cause you said it's a Visa. First you have to sign up for a paypal account, then it will ask you to type your card number so you can link them together. From there, you will most likely know what to do.

Lastly, about Siargao, no, those were personal entries; your entries should be balanced.

Thanks again for taking the time to read and actually sending me a message! By the way, is it alright if I put your message in my blog to let other people know about it? So I can add another entry to my site. hehe.

Take care,
Edcel

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Google Adsense

Google adsense are the advertisements placed mostly on every site that you go to. According to most people, this is where they earn the most income when it comes to ads.

You can apply an account online through the adsense home. Once you apply, it will ask you for your billing information and such. Afterwards, you're all set to place some ads in your blog!

Note: The only blog I believe that can let you maximize where you place your ads as well as get the actual amount of how your earnings through it is thru Blogger, because right now, Blogger is powered by Google.

Going back to my application in adsense, there was suddenly an added security feature wherein you had enter a Security PIN coming from Google itself. The security pin will let you authenticate your address to make sure that you are where you are. For me, I just woke up one morning and received a letter from a mailman. I didn't even believe I'd get one, since I'm in the Philippines and I don't really trust the postal services unless it's governed by a private company. Anyway, it took me around 2 weeks to get that PIN; after entering it on the site, my account was verified!

The good thing about it is you can just use Western Union as the mode of payment. Once you reach a $100, then you can start withdrawing it through the different centers in your area.

The problem is that soloflighted.com's just new and it's not gaining that much traffic, hence the less amount of earnings.

The reason why there are a number of networking sites (to the best of my knowledge) like maybe friendster, facebook, multiply etc. are free is because the world wide web is all about generating hits or traffic. In order for your site to generate a lot of moolah over adsense, you need to have a lot of visitors. As you can see there are different advertisements whenever you load a page in these social sites. That's part of the strategies for them to earn. I was already placing ads on my site, but honestly, since I don't have that much traffic, this is not where I'm generating most of my income.

A very important tip warning: Never, never, never, NEVER, NEVER click on your own ads! It violates the purpose and the terms and agreement with Google, and they will ban you once they find out. After banning you, you can't apply again under your name. So again, save yourself and just don't.

Coming up: Paid Post Sites --> where I generate most of my income

Monday, April 14, 2008

Paypal

Paypal is a form of cashless transaction that is most accepted by most websites as a form of payment. Here in the Philippines, I believe it can be compared to Globe's Gcash. Both parties must have a paypal account in order for you to send out money to each other. Honestly, I still don't know much about it. But I was able to apply for an account.

In order for you to apply for one though, you need to have a credit card. I believe it would have to be a Mastercard or a Visa. Since I was already able to acquire a visa electron thru Unionbank EON account, all I had to do was set my paypal up and link these two together.

At the paypal site, it will ask you to add your credit card to your account because you need to verify your information first. You just have to fill your credit card information to add that account. Afterwards, you need to activate your paypal account. This is done by entering an Expanded Usage number wherein they will charge you a $1.95 fee. Since I didn't use a credit card, I made sure I had some funds in my Unionbank account in order to have sufficient money for deduction.

After they are able to process it, you need to check your credit card statement for an Expanded Usage number which is what you need to type back in your paypal. But since I don't receive statements from Unionbank, what I did is log in to their site and log in to the EON cyber account page. I emailed them and got a response with the expanded usage number in their message. You just have to enter that number in the field in paypal and voila! You're account is verified!

Note: Please do contact your bank, because before I kept on clicking the button in paypal to send me the expanded usage number thru Unionbank. What happened is every time I mailed Unionbank for the number, paypal kept saying that the number has expired already. On the third attempt, I was able to go through the process; that and I was charged thrice instead of once. Sheesh.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Creating a Blog

Of course, before you can earn some money online thru blogging, you need to have a blog in the first place, which totally makes sense. hehe.

I definitely recommend that you try to set up you blog here in Blogger/Blogspot more than anywhere else. Just to let you know, I used to have a blog in Blog-city, but when it folded up, I wanted to try a place where it's still simple. I tried using Wordpress, and yes it is simple. However because of Wordpress' simplicity, it also came with limited features. You can't customize it as much as what you can do with Blogger when it comes to themes and layouts, making money, Google adsense (since it's powered by Google), paid posts and mostly everything!

Honestly, I'm not really trying to sell Blogger, it's just that as of the moment, no one can beat this blog host; which explains why the lack of available user IDs to choose because it's already congested.

Anyway, you can simply apply online for blogger, that is you need to have a Gmail account. If you don't have one, then you can let somebody who has one invite you to create one. Every Gmail user has about 50 invitations he/she can send out to anyone. If you wish to have one, just PING me and I'll invite you.

After you have created a blog, then of course you need to maintain it. You need to update it regularly, it doesn't have to be everyday though it's good if you do. The reason why this is so is for you to establish your blog from different search engines to have a mark on the world wide web. Your blog can be whatever you'd like to put in; sports, music, hobbies, personal, etc., there are endless topics to choose from. If you don't have any specific topic to blog about, then you can just blog about anything! Again, the technique is to leave a mark in the web space.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

istorya

I never thought I'd get some responses from people in Istorya. Well, I did, but I didn't think someone would really care to understand how I was able to do it, earning online. I'm just overwhelmed by the replies; which makes me want to blog more in this site. Pardon me, I'm still new at posting comments or topics in forums. hehe.

Here's the link of the topic I created:
http://www.istorya.net/forums/index.php/topic,189081.0.html

Thank you for the people who've responded!

Friday, April 11, 2008

Unionbank EON

Here in the Philippines, I had a bit of a problem when I tried to apply for a paypal account, since I didn't have a Mastercard or a Visa credit card available. Good thing the admin gave me some tips on how to organize the payment method. She informed me of a savings account by Unionbank that accepts paypal without the hassle. Unionbank's EON account is/was (I don't know if its still holds true nowadays) the only savings account that offered services for paypal. The reason why I needed to have an account here is for me to be able to withdraw from an atm the money that is inside my paypal account.

So I applied for an account online. After filling up the necessary information, they told me I just needed to wait around 3-5 business days for processing. You can choose the nearest Unionbank center in your area on where you wish it to be picked up for convenience.

You can just go to their site and click the EON Cyber Account Link, from there you can start off signing up for an account.

I got an email during withing the 3-5 day time frame saying I could now pick up the card at the local branch. I went to the bank and paid my amount (P350) for the annual fee. So, I now got a Visa Electron!

Note: Guys, you can just use your credit card if you wish to apply for paypal, but for ease of use and I don't want to mix expenses and earnings, I'd rather suggest you apply for one. For me, this is also more secure.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

first payout!

I just got my first payout for the month of April from the admin. $110, not bad for Photobucketsomebody who's just starting out. I received the fruits of my labor 5 days ago and it feels so good knowing that I earned something this big for a craft which is already a part of me.

I even created an Excel format (just basic computations) to keep track of what I've posted and which tasks I've published.

I'm just so high right now, knowing that I finally generated some income out of blogging. I'm not one of those skeptical people who thinks that earning online is such a big joke, but neither did I really believe I could earn some dough out of it, until now.

Photobucket

Monday, April 7, 2008

dneero

I applied for Dneero surveys online. They pay you a certain amount if you answer a survey and post it into your blog. Once it generates a number of impressions, then you'll be earning some cash. For every $20 you will receive a payout through paypal.

After applying for an account, I checked on some surveys to answer and readily copied the codes and posted them on my blog. I was advised to use the "Generic Flash Embedding" cause the surveys only generate income once the whole survey is being read by visitors online. Instead of people clicking on the dneero link in order for them to read the survey, you can just use "Generic Flash Embedding" so it will come up directly as a page already. You may also use the code setting for the "Blogger" as well as I believe they have the same outcome. Here's what it looks like.

Friday, April 4, 2008

things I did

I started earning money for extra tasks from the admin during November of 2007. But it's only now that I started to earn money for my site. Here's a list of things I did that began my adventures in the blogging business.

I initially wrote "Things to Do" for this list, but since I can't guarantee that you'll have the same outcome as I do, I replaced it with "Things I Did". This mainly serves as a guide for reference.

Things I Did:
  • Create a Paypal account - This is used for cash (or should I say cashless) transactions. This is the main mode of payment used by generally everyone.
  • Apply for a Union Bank EON Account - In order for you to apply for a paypal account, you need to have a credit card (Mastercard or Visa). Since I didn't have any at that time, my admin suggested that I apply for a Union Bank EON account which is the only savings account that accepts paypal in the Philippines.
  • Create a Blog! - This is where you earn cash as you blog. The best place that accepts most of those advertisements and paid posts as well as customize your page for your pleasure would be... you guessed it right, Blogger/Blogspot. But since I already had one (with a lot of entries at that) my admin purchased a domain for me. She bought a domain at Wordpress.
Note: Your blog should meet certain requirements imposed by different pay per post sites (e.g. blog must be 3 months old, must all have original content, etc.).
  • Apply for a Dneero Survey Account - This isn't much but it can be handy at times. You can only get a certain amount for every survey you take and post to your site. It doesn't hurt to earn some while taking surveys.
  • Apply for Google Adsense - This is where most people with a website (with high traffic) earn their moolah. You just have to copy and paste the codes and place them on your site. For every click *ehem* for every VALID click, you get a few cent's worth of revenue.
By the way, don't ever, ever, ever, EVER, EVER!!! click on your own ads. I can't stress it more.
  • Apply for Paid Post Sites - Where I earn most of my income through blogging since in my blog, I more or less advertise different products.

I'll be writing posts with better detail of the thing I mentioned above.

    Wednesday, April 2, 2008

    history of soloflighted.com

    I went back to blogging mainly because I wanted to earn some cash in the process. I had a colleague at work who was earning some money out of blogging and I got intrigued while learning a lot from her. So I tried to revive my then defunct blog at Blog-city.com. The only problem is the site was kicking out bloggers who had free accounts by the end of that year (2007). To think I had more than a hundred entries on that site as I was blogging for about 3 years using that domain.

    Anyway, after some negotiations with the same colleague, she proposed to buy a domain for me provided that I of course, give something back in return. Business is business after all.

    please click on the link for the full entry on why I started blogging again:
    Back to Blogging

    Tuesday, April 1, 2008

    starter

    I created this blog just to chronicle the life of my site: soloflighted.com and how I started earning and making money out of it. Some people may find the idea of blogging money absurd, especially those who are really skeptical. Sure you may laugh at me as I may sound like an email spammer, as if I sell different types of medicines or insurances from Timbuktu. But hey, I'm really earning!

    This blog is just a guide for those people who have plans of making use of their blog to earn some moolah.

    Peace out!