Mother’s Got A Dot Com

It’s that time of the month again, and here’s an overview of how my 2 blogs are doing…

For some obscure reason, my blogspot blog, that has become something of a step-child (and I’m using that term metaphorically, people, since I’ve got two step-children…) when it comes to content, rank, updating and traffic, was restored to a PR 2 some time in March. Frankly, I find that quite ridiculous, but it has resulted in more opps from PPP. Not interesting enough to accept, but at least they’re there… I’m not very optimistic (and not too bothered) about how long I’ll be allowed to keep the rank this time.
Mother’s Home! has an Alexa rank of close to 700K, its’ Technorati standing isn’t exactly improving, and it’s not very well visited. To be honest, I mostly do paid posts on it these days. Go figure.

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Some of my posts are sponsored, and so are some of my in-post links. Many blog advertisers these days require that you don’t disclose the posts’ sponsored status within the post, and that may rise some ethical issues.

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I once predicted that I’d reach the $100 payout limit from Google Adsense sometime around Christmas 2008. I’ll have to eat my words. At the rate it’s going, I’ll be lucky if I get there by Christmas 2010…

Adsense is by far the largest operator in the internet ad business. There are copycats - I call them that because they look more or less exactly the same, and although their program policies may vary from Google, I doubt they’ll get you more clicks. I could be wrong - I frequently am - but I’ll stick with Adsense, for now, anyway.

Why bother? At $2 - 5 per month, why indeed… I think it’s the gambler in me. About once a week, I check my stats. More often than not, there’s either a big fat zero there, or if I’m in luck, 11 cents. Once in a while, though… Once in a very long while, the stats will show $2, $4 or even $5… That’s when I think: NOW! Things are moving, finally… I’m wrong, of course. Next week, I’m back on zero. Or 11 cents.

It’s the only gambling I do. Granted, the adrenaline rush is… limited. It’s all the rush I need, and it costs me nothing. The thought lingers though: Maybe next time. One day, maybe I’ll hit gold. So I keep the ads up, and I sometimes remember to add them to my posts, notably the Read more… posts (the number you’re allowed per page is limited).

Maybe a little more commitment to tweaking (is that the word?) Adsense ads would bring more clicks, but I’m a certified scatterbrain, and likely to remain so. My spur-of-the-moment style of posting means that I frequently edit in the ads once the post has been up for a day or two…

As for the other ads on this blog - they’re all part of the same experience. Is it possible to earn real money in affiliate marketing if you don’t have a niche blog? The answer so far is no. I am, of course, speaking for myself here. People don’t come here to buy anything, and I don’t blame them. I’d be hard put to sell ice tea in Sahara. People come here to read my incredibly insightful posts about all and sundry. Actually, they don’t do that either… These days, they come to drop their Entrecards, and they’re very welcome!

Google Adsense and me… we’ll just plod on together. I’ll buy myself something nice for Christmas in 2 -3 years time…

Oh, yes, must remember…

- I created my own online store… It took all of 10 minutes. (You can do it in 5, but you need to stock it up, too!)

It’s free, there are hundreds of items from many categories to sell, and whether you want to specialize in kids’ clothes, jewelry or books, or have a bit of a mishmash, the site is easy to use. Why choose, by the way? You can have up to 20 stores to your name! There are several templates to choose from, or you can customize one to suit your tastes.

I haven’t looked too much at commissions on “my” items yet, but you can get up to 10% on items sold. Some items pay per click, as well. You don’t package or bill or send anything, by the way.

What else? Oh, yes - Come and have a look at mine!
Did I say it’s a free service? Give it a whirl, and see what your online store at Zlio.com could look like…

This is not a whine…

I knew I was going to get slapped again, but not that it would happen so soon… Some time during the last couple of days, Google googled me, and must have found me sadly lacking, coz’ here I sit stand before you, a big fat zero stamped all over my face - again.
Turnip Of Power (whose blog/site everyone should read, by the way) told me so after I did a post on Izea (PPP). I know… I just found it too ridiculous that Google should bother with little old me. Now that I’ve seen it happen a second time, I probably have to believe it… It’s still ridiculous, though.

I don’t know what triggered it this time - I had all the PPP badges up when I was oh, so graciously given the PR3 - just under 4 weeks ago… I’ve avoided the “sponsored by” code up until very recently - maybe that’s what did it.

Do I care? On one level, yes. With PR being so widely recognized as it is, it will have some effect. What peeves me more is that PPP, the root of the problem, still uses PR as a parameter in their system. Get on with your RealRank, people! Educate your customers as well as your posties! No point in RealRanking blogs if PR is still both A and Z… (And why are there still PR5 blogs out there doing PPP? - what do they do that I don’t???)

On the other hand, my traffic is increasing, my Technorati authority is on the up, and my Alexa rank is getting better every week. That’s what matters. So, there will be no PPP opps - I’ll have to consider if I want to keep doing them, anyway. I don’t want to give in, but PR is Googles’ baby, they’ll do what they want with it, however ridiculous. It’s one or the other, it seems.

Oh, bother it! I enjoy blogging, and I’m sure I’ll find other ways to make those few extra bucks each month. PR or no PR, I’m the same, my blogging buddies are the same, and with Entrecard, I’m getting to “know” more of them too. Some people even say that blogging gets better with less paid posts - fancy that, hahaha!

Pay Per Play are on the go! They’re still in testing mode, but they’re sending out 100 000 audio ads per day already, some of which I’ve had - AND I’ve got money in my account to show for it! Not much as of yet, but as their official launching date was February 1st, I’m not exactly expecting the moon and stars. The first earnings are in, though, and I’m excited to see what comes next.

Part of the reason why they’re not fully active yet is that they want to get rid of p.o.r.n , hate and crime sites in their system before serving ads full scale. So - their spider is scouring member sites, getting rid of the non-serious and dubious ones. 51 000 p.o.r.n sites were removed during the last spider run… I don’t know about you, but I don’t mind waiting a week or so to get rid of those.

Pay Per Play is easily set up (just a snippet of code in your template), it pays in 3 tiers, and the audio ads are only 5 seconds, which should be bearable for most people. I’m amazed that no one has thought of this before, and I’m excited about being part of it.

Getting paid on 100% of my website traffic, no clicks necessary, that’ll do for me!

It’s free, of course, and there’s still room for you - so go there, read up, and get your code installed today!

January brought quite a few changes for this blog.

First of all - Traffic: I joined Linkreferral on December 13th, and Entrecard on December 21st. Traffic doubled in December, from 300 or so in November to 649 in December. In January, my visitor count was 1856! I haven’t been all that diligent on Linkreferral, but traffic is trickling in from there, whereas the major part of my traffic comes from Entrecard. OK - the numbers aren’t that impressive as such, but I’m very happy with the results.
I’m sure this means I should set specific goals for the future, but I think I’ll just see how it goes.

Second - Rank: I think Google gave me a PR of 3 around the 11th or 12th of January. Shortly thereafter, this blog was accepted by , and I started getting offers again! I’ve learned my lesson - I take nothing for granted when it comes to Google, so I’ll just take what I can while the going is good…
As for Technorati, the Big Bang Meme has pulled me up from 63 in authority on Monday, to 147 today… How’s that for a result! (I update the list every day, as well!)
Alexa - I think I was in the 400Ks in the beginning of the month, and I’m now approaching 200K. So I’m happy there too.

Third, and the bottom line - Earnings: I’ve joined a few new programs: *Project Wonderful, that will probably earn me more than Adsense does (which isn’t much, but the potential is there, and I only have 2 ad spots at the moment). *Blog to Profit, that looks promising. *Buy Blog Reviews, that haven’t delivered yet…

As for the old - PPP are very good, as long as your PR is above 0…
have been very good. My PR0 blog has had it’s share of assignments too, and I’ve made good money from them this month.
With all the rest, assignments are trickling in, slowly, and I do some of them. ReviewMe have also paced up a bit with the PR increase, Sponsored Reviews are slow, Smorty don’t have very interesting opps, and Linky Love Army seem to have ground to a halt. Blogsvertise are picking up.
As for affiliate programs… ha ha ha. Then again, I don’t do much to promote them…

Ok, Ok, bottom line: $245,50 in January, which is a significant increase since December, and most of it has come in during the last half of the month. So… I’m hopeful, as long as Google keeps things at status quo!

( P.S: I’ve got readers too. The kind that opt to read this - can you imagine? The numbers fluctuate from 22 to 35 on a daily basis, so I must be appealing to the undecided of the Blogosphere. That’s Ok, people - you just jump righ in… and out… and in again!)

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Under “Featured Sites” in my sidebars, you may have noticed two batches of square ads. They come from Project Wonderful, and I’m hoping they’ll generate a little bit of passive income over time…
It’s very simple, really - you decide how many ads you want to make space for, you decide the minimum price per day, and whoever bids the most, gets the spot. Whenever one ad is outbid, the higher bidder replaces it on your blog… You may choose which advertisers to accept - I didn’t check one properly yesterday, and found myself hosting an ad for a porn site… (Blush…) I soon corrected that though - you can cancel an active ad at any time, and you can also ban advertisers from bidding for your spots.
You can advertise too, of course, and in many cases, you can get your ad out there for nothing - until you’re outbid.

There are a few hiccups still, people can bid even if they’re out of funds, which doesn’t get their ad up there, but it’s a waste of time for the publisher… Also, earnings are calculated on an hour-to-hour basis, so the really crafty advertisers might cancel their bids just before their account is debited, and still have had their ad up on your blog for a while. That’s a good way to be banned from the blogs they cheat, of course…

Still, these issues aren’t the end of the world, and I like the concept - it’s clean, it’s flexible, and how you monitor it is totally up to you. For me, even with very low bids and just 3 ad spots, it’ll outdo Adsense in the long run - no problem at all.
As an advertiser, it’s an easy (and sometimes very cheap) way to get exposure for your blog or site.

I don’t mind the competition - try Project Wonderful - bids on my spots start at 5 cents per day, but I will accept ads for nothing if my spots are empty…

I’ve enabled Pay Per Play on Mother’s Got A Dot Com. I’m possibly the last person in the Blogosphere to have heard of it - it’s being promoted all over, and now here…

Pay Per Play gives your visitors a 5 second audio ad as they enter your site. This means that for every visitor that stays on your site for more than 2 seconds, you get paid.
Being paid for every visitor, without requiring any actions (clicks) from my visitors, is the kind of passive income that appeals to me…
I thought it was too good an opportunity to miss. They also have a referral program, that pays in 3 tiers:

25% of what the advertiser spends on airing their ad on your site, goes to you
5% of what advertisers spend on ads on you referrals’ websites goes to you
5% of what advertisers spend on ads on your referrals’ referrals’ websites goes to you.

You’re paid for 100% of your traffic, and for 100% of your referrals’ traffic!

The official launch date is February 1st - that’s when the ads start airing, and that’s when we start earning.

At some point, they may well close the opportunity to earn from referrals, which is why getting in there before February 1st is probably a very good idea.

I’d like to know what you think.

I don’t mind 5 seconds of audio as I enter a blog or site, but I know that audio irritates a lot of people. Please take a minute to tell me how you feel about it in comments!

I’ve got this post up as a page in my sidebar - I’ll assess the whole adventure around the end of March. I might get a poll from somewhere to post there too. Why I’ve gone into this? It doesn’t cost me anything, I might earn from it, and as long as the ads stay as short as 5 seconds, I believe it’s something most visitors will take in their stride.

If you want in, there are links galore in this post for Pay Per Play <— or you can use this one!