Mother’s Got A Dot Com

I’ve had regular comments lately, on posts that are buried way, way down in my archives. They are obviously written by people, but the link goes to a commercial site.

The comments themselves don’t always make sense, or have any real content. Some are shameless praise – they’re the easy ones to catch.

I don’t mind linking out – I would, however, like to decide for myself which commercial sites I link to. Which, of course, I do – I mark everything as spam that I don’t like.

Akismet has done well for me here – it’s stopped thousands of spam. Usually, the ones that are stopped are very obvious spam. These new types – it looks like commercial sites have people employed to go around commenting on blogs to get them backlinks.

Not a job I’d want.

So, spammers: Isn’t it much better to have bloggers link to you willingly? It’s dead easy – the following, for example, is a link: It has to do with automotive lifts. Not something I’d normally talk about on this blog, and I’m not about to start, since I hardly know what they are. If this type of link isn’t what you’re after, get in touch! A blogger who writes about the stuff you’re selling might want to exchange links – who knows? Ask! The worst that can happen is that you’re turned down.

You might have to give links out to get links back to your site, but nothing ever comes into a closed hand.

It seems to me that the Mystery Shopping industry must be heaving… My little work-from-home sideline as a proofreader has turned out to be quite a job this month.

Up until now, the largest number of checks I’ve been assigned in a month was around 40. Which made it one little egg in my basket. This month, I’m fast approaching 200 assigned proofreadings. My basket is filling up…

Since I also have to attend to more mundane chores, like changing nappies (that’s diapers to anyone west of Land’s End, Cornwall, UK) and feeding hordes of Brats, as well as chasing dust-bunnies, blogging has been forced to the back seat.  I know the weather conditions in places like Mumbai, Kuala Lumpur  and St.Petersburg on any given day, but that kind of information does not make interesting blog posts. Especially if coming from someone who’s never actually been in either of those places.

One mundane thing that filled my heart with joy today was that I spotted the first sign of spring: In a spot in our garden, where the snow has gone for some strange reason (most of  the garden is still covered with 10 inches of snow, which is 25 centimeters to anyone of the metric persuasion), the daffodil bulbs that I threw there last year are sprouting. Not blooming, sprouting. Green things sticking up, with snow all around. This means that somewhere down there, in the cold ground, things are happening, and the new Ice Age won’t be for this year. Always good to know.

Global warming, while not applicable for us Northdwellers, will give us another year’s respite, and while waiting for milder times, I keep my mind active by putting eggs in my basket.

Easter’s coming!

I’ve received a cheque. Not a big one – juuust over the payment limit. From the big G. It took me exactly 2 years, but I’ve done it. The ad business resumes though, as one just has to start all over again.

It’s looking as if it won’t take 2 years to accumulate the next cheque – I won’t be resting on my laurels, so to speak.
(What sort of expression is that? Anyone tried to rest on laurels? They’re hard, and the tips of the leaves are prickly… They smell nice, though. Saves on the lavender.)

I thought to take a photo of the thing, (the cheque, not the laurels) but all the moguls have done it – it’s just so… last week…

This is money I’ve earnt while I’ve slept, by the way. If you do the maths, it becomes evident that sleeping is bad business.

Link to weird furniture place

In my search for ways to make money blogging, I found a site called Paying Post a while ago. I’d forgotten all about it, and looking over my template’s HTML code today, I found a tracking code I didn’t know. Lo and behold, I’m registered and everything! Surprise – Mum’s forgotten.

Anyway. I’ve obviously decided to give them a whirl at some point, so, now that I’ve relocated them, I thought I might as well follow it up.

First, a thorough look at their website. The layout is pleasing, and fairly new (they updated it in December), and the site is easy to figure out. They have a blog as well, and it’s actually an interesting read. There are great tips on paid and unpaid blogging there, articles on the economy from a blogger/advertiser viewpoint, an extensive “how to” section, and more.

I blog because I enjoy it, and i also enjoy earning a buck or 5 on paid posts. English being my second language, I find it challenging to write product reviews, website reviews and other paid postings in English. It keeps my brain active… The fact that it also lines my Paypal account can only be seen as a bonus.

Blog marketing gets up some people’s noses, I know. It’s never irritated me, and I think it’s here to stay. If a blog post interests me, I’ll read it, whether it promotes and links to a site that sells garden gnomes or not. If it’s interesting enough, I might even click on the garden gnome. We bloggers have our little bits of real estate on the ‘net, and as long as advertisers think they get their money’s worth, they’ll be willing to hire our “spots”. I’m quite willing to promote Paying Post, as a new blog marketing site that may be good to me. I hope it will.

There’s room for more bloggers over there, if you’re interested. There’s room for advertisers too.

Are you looking for new ways to monetize it?

Tradedoubler is a company that lets you display affiliate links and banners for the UK market. They partner with well known brand names. I use it on my Norwegian blog (they cater to the Norwegian market too, go figure), and I’ve done quite well there. They give you real-time stats, and getting started is easy.
Maybe your blog is based in the US, but you get a lot of traffic from the UK? Then Tradedoubler might be for you too…

Linkout time – here’s a little token of appreciation for a random lot of people who’ve commented here… This time, say hello to:

Yesss! I’ll be getting there. I think. Not for my 2 year blogging anniversary (that was on the 22nd, yay me!), but within the month.

Getting where? To my very first Google Adsense payout, that’s where! Stay tuned for a stunning photo of me and check in… what ‘ll it be.. March?

So far – in a little over a year, Akismet has caught over 10 000 spam comments for me. 10 245 to be exact.
This morning, there was 114 in line. I had a quick look – all porn, diet pills and various medication. Why are meds such a big thing on the ‘net, I wonder? I don’t do meds if I can help it, but if I had to, I’d make sure it was prescribed by a doctor, and I wouldn’t risk buying bootleg stuff…
Anyway. I usually try to scan the spam, to see if any genuine comments get stuck in there by mistake (it happens from time to time), but today I deleted everything. 114 comments, each a mile long – no way.
So – I apologize if anyone’s genuine comment has been deleted. I doubt it though – spam seems to be very much in season.

- to a few of my blogger friends and faithful commenters – some with Entrecard logos and some without…