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I have been reading a lot lately about Google Adsense sharing. The premise is simple. Sites built on the backs of contributors and reap the rewards of the traffic generated (adsense clicks) have started sharing the adsense revenue with the contributors. Now this is nothing new. Some sites have done this for quite a while now. However, there are now a myriad of different sites and blogs jumping into the fray. There are article sites that want any and every type contributor out there. They want volume. But I think that the way to actually do this is to concentrate on quality. IF you were to get say 10 great contributors to post regularly to a blog, keep the blog focused on a niche, and have all 10 promote the blog, I think you would see PR rankings, sites linking to your site, and readership increase much more dramatically than if you were the only writer.
I have a few ideas for a blog or two and I may just try this. I do know that doing it this way will take time to build readership and this is not a get rich quick scheme. However, over time it could be a very viable business model.
Over 5000 hits on this blog. Let’s go for 10,000!
Check it out. Zlio.com has a new look. Looks nice!
A PR5 ranking by Google is pretty good. I did it with very little effort and here’s how.
- I started blogging. I went to WordPress and got myself a blog.
- I had something to blog about. I started the blog to tell the story about my (now defunct) adventure with Shopster. I found that there were a lot of people who wanted information on what works and what doesn’t.
- I built incoming links. Well I didn’t build them, they came to me. Others in Shopster had blogs and so we added each other to our blogrolls. The more I blogged them more incoming links I receive.
- Squidoo. I built a Squidoo lens with a link to my blog.
- I posted two or three times a day.
- Tags and categories. Tags are what make a blog successful. By using the right tags you get found. I made sure to use Google in tags as much as possible. They really like reading about themselves.
- I answered the comments to my posts. Even if it was only a thank you for commenting.
- I helped others. If you’ll notice my blogroll you’ll see Shopster sites listed even though they are not blogs. By giving them a link from a PR5 site they were helped and in return they helped me by reading the blog and giving me a link.
- I kept focused. I focused on ecommerce, Shopster, and ways to make an ecommerce site successful.Well
Well that’s about it. You know, once I closed my Shopster site I really didn’t think much about this blog. Then, months after my last post, I got a comment from someone who found the site. I came back, checked the stats, and to my amazement found that site was still receiving hits. So, I am once again blogging and trying to give information that people are looking for. I like doing it so it’s a win-win.
How I lost it…I quit posting!
I have noticed that there are a lot of bloggers (20 or so over the past few months) and website owners who use my posts on their site. I really don’t mind, it sort of strokes the ego. What I need to try and understand is just how this helps me. I know that I have received hits to this site from their sites and so that’s a plus. About a month after I started this blog I built it into a PR5 ranked site. Then, I quit blogging after I quit Shopster and it dropped to a current PR3. However, I have a PR3 ranked site without any updates. Could this be from the links? Probably. Anyway, anyone who wants to use my posts may do it. My next post will detail how I got a PR5 ranking.
My Bookwise adventure has been put on hold for now. The reason? They are currently still trying to get the details for each book on the websites and the 1.5 million titles aren’t there yet. Should be by the end of January.
For the past week or so I have been in email contact with a very nice lady who is an associate of Bookwise. I haven’t joined yet because I still have questions, which she is answering quite exhaustively. If you don’t know what Bookwise is I’ll give you what I know. This is not meant to be a sales pitch just general information.
Bookwise is a network marketing company pure and simple. Now that may turn you off immediately and if it does i apologize. I have been involved, known people involved, or studied nearly every network marketing company in existence. I know that it is one of the best ways to get a product to market cheaply and efficiently. The problem with most is that the products being marketed wouldn’t sale on a Wal-Mart 1/2 off shelf. That’s the sad part. The other sad part is that people join without knowing what is involved and then see their dreams wiped away by their downline either not performing or dropping out. So when I took a look at BookWise this is what I found.
They sell books. They claim 1.5 million titles (books, cds,dvds,and games) total. Each associate recieves their own online bookstore from which they can purchase at discounted prices and can resell or people can sign up and buy from them on their site. The prices are high compared to the biggies Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com but not by that much. All MLMs have higher prices in order to cover commissions and profits. See, the truth is that MLMs aren’t as much about selling product as they are about associates buying product, so they can have higher prices and still move products. See why starting an MLM is smart?
Now Bookwise does have a great product. There were over $25 billion in book sales in the US last year alone. That’s a huge pie and Bookwise wants a piece. The fact that they have a great product does set them apart from most other companies.
The thing that impresses me about Bookwise is the compensation plan. It’s as if they went to all the MLM companies, found out what people hated about them, and then did the opposite. Actually I think that’s what they did.
In most MLMs you HAVE to sponsor people in order to qualify for commissions. In Bookwise you do not.
In most MLMs your qualification through different levels is dependent upon sponsoring and group volume sales. In Bookwise it is not.
In Bookwise, once you sign up and make your $39.95 per month qualifying purchase, you are in and qualified through 8 levels for commissions. How do you get people to sign up if you don’t sponsor you may ask? Your upline sponsors for you and places people under you in order to build their downline. Just keep paying $39.95 per month and you’re good to go!
If and when I get in I will definitely sponsor people. That’s the real way to build fast. Plus, I get matching commissions on everyone I sign up. For instance, let’s say that I sign up 3 good people who start collecting $500 per month in commission checks, i will get matching commissions for each one totaling $1500 every month plus my regular commissions. Now for anyone who has done MLM you know you can’t beat that.
That’s about it for Bookwise. If you’ve ever been in MLM before and know the ropes you should check it out. They blow eveeryone else out of the water with the commission plan.
Here is an idea I have fooled around with. I have the concept, I have the site, now all i need are some videos. The site is Interviewables.com and it is a site dedicated to helpling people become better at job interviews by allowing them to post videos of themselves answering the interview questions we have posted and then recieve feedback and comments from the community. See, I haven’t been totally slack!
I checked out Zlio.com recently just to see what it’s all about. If you haven’t heard of Zlio.com it is a site that allows you to setup an e-commerce site absolutely free. Now, Zlio doesn’t actually have any products warehoused, it is more of a comparison shopping site. They boast over 3 million products. I set up a site in about 10 minutes. You can see it here kitchenmart.zliostore.com. The way it works is you set up your store, add products, and then promote your store. When visitors come to your site and click a product they will be shown a list of merchants. Now some of these merchants will pay you if you sell something and others will pay you if a visitor clicks on their site, much like adsense. Your visitors can select which online merchant they would like to buy from. it’s an interesting concept and since it is free I am giving it a try. I’ll let you know how it’s working.
To all my loyal readers in the past I apologize for not updating this blog. Around last July I shut down my Shopster site. It wasn’t because of anything Shopster did, I just didn’t have the time to dedicate to it and didn’t want to keep spending money every month without any sales. However, I do know that it will work if you work it.
I have made money at Constant-Content. I have sold 12 articles and cleared about $200. That is another opportunity that can reap benefits if you have the time to dedicate to it.
So for now let me say that my journey was temporarily halted but hasn’t ended. I am pursuing other opportunities and will write about them in the future.
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