I track my sites using Long Tail Magic (My own Tracking Software) on a regular basis. You can say that I am on top of my sites and the traffic I get on almost an hourly basis because Long Tail Magic shows me all the sites and traffic details on one page. 

A few days back I noticed an unusual increase of traffic on a few of my sites and as I drilled down into it, I noticed that the traffic was coming from a site called Vinefire.com and sure enough, I just went to that site and saw that it has nothing but links (Sponsored Links on top, and free ones on the bottom) and every minute hundreds of links were being added to the site. Very surprised as to who is posting the links, and why, I looked around and noticed that the site was giving an incentive to all users for clicking on these links, and for voting for each link (you could vote UP or DOWN).

Curious as to what the business model of the site is, I went into more details and noticed that it says the company that owns the site want it to get acquired by a big fish in the market and it would be thier responsibility to pay you (so in my opinion, you’re not getting paid). PERIOD.

What a scam, I thought and started thinking why should these people be spending their time clicking on links when they might no even get paid. I left the site and an hour later I ran back to the site as I recalled - “SPONSORED LINKS” … Did that site say “SPONSORED LINKS”. 

(The first link in the picture above was the one I posted and made some extra cash with)

Sure enough as I went back I noticed that you can PAY for a link to be posted and a paid link will stay on top of free links (okay) but why would I pay for a link on this site because I am positive the users will click on my link, come to my site and go back because they just want to make money. So why pay for traffic that won’t do anything. “But there has to be some way to monetize on it”, I thought - “Adsense? PPC? Zip Submits?”, and I just kept thinking as I browsed through that site and I noticed that they had an affiliate program for their sponsored links.

WOW I said … This is INSANE. They allow you to post a sponsored link, but at the same time, they let you promote that sponsored link section for a 50% commission.

I posted a 24 hour link there for $24 and pointed it to the “VineFire Sponsored Link” and EUREKA … In the next hour or so I had made more than $24 … and the commissions continued to increase … Sure enough after 24 hours my link expired and I posted again, this time a bigger link and it paid itself and some extra cash for other stuff … 

Here is a clickbank snapshot of the last few days:

So this says that this account made $422 in a week with absolutely no more than one hour of work… if you could do it every week that would make it close to $2k a month (EXTRA) … But again, this is a quick money maker strategy and you should definitely not bank on something like this for a long term income generation plans because the owner of the site can change the policy anytime and stop you from advertising, or just stop letting people signup under your banner, or close the site or sell it (as this particular site owner intends to do). Be careful and always focus on solid ideas that will make you money for the rest of your life due to the high quality work you put in. These things could be add-ons to have fun and make some extra bits to make some off the list purchases (like it bought me a nice fishing rod and a tennis racquet so I’m all set for my summer activities … Thanks to this site).

It was sweet of how you can make money promoting a website, on that very website (rare find).

But if you keep your eyes open for similar opportunities, there are several sites where you can do stuff like that … 

If you want to take advantage of this site, go to VineFire.com and give it a shot.

Cheers

I’ve heard it for the longest time that PPC is a waste of time and that everyone loses money in it. I’ve even heard HORROR stories where students lost $20,000+ trying to learn PPC.

It was because of that that I stayed away…

Now, I just saw something that scratch my head and I’m wondering if we’ve been lied to?

Anik Singal and Amit Mehta released PPC Classroom last October and in just three months I’ve been hearing rumors of crazy stories coming out of there.

Students have been saying all over the net that it’s the best course they’ve ever been in. But, too bad the course has been closed for a few months and there is NO way to get in (you can’t even talk your way in).

Well, then I just saw something a few days ago – they’re re-opening!

But get this…

They have PROOF that their students are actually earning $4,234,789 a year already!

MILLIONS of dollars that NEWBIES are making. They have story after story of complete newbies that are now making up to $3,000 a DAY (within just a few months).

Download Their Free Report…

It’s pretty cool (and great marketing) that they just released a report that actually reveals the FIVE main reasons people fail in PPC.

I read the report in about 20 minutes…EXCELLENT.

All those horror stories make a lot of sense now.

Have a read – trust me, it’s one of the best free reports I’ve read in a while (these guys are known to really over-deliver and they definitely did here).

I don’t care if you don’t buy, just read the report & Click Here…

UPDATE ON THE NEW FOLDER VIRUS:

I WAS ABLE TO REMOVE THE VIRUS USING THE ESET NOD32 ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE.

————————

As I write this post, my computer is affected by a very strange VIRUS. With what I remember, I was transferring some files from a USB pen drive that belonged to someone else and in an attempt to look for a file, I clicked on a New Folder which actually was an executable file called New Folder.exe. Nothing happened at that time, but after about an hour or so, my Google Talk client was automatically launched and since I have my password saved on Google Talk, it logged in and sent out a message to everyone on my contacts whose status was either Online or Away. The messages sent to everyone was different but had a link on the message that pointed to an executable file.

I always keep my computer loaded with antivirus and adware removal tools like Norton, AVG, Ad-Aware, etc but nothing seemed to find and fix this virus so far. However not much damage has been done to my computer, besides a lot of services being blocked like Task Manager, RegEdit, Command Prompt, etc. So I got this new tool that helped me enable everything and is a fix for this VIRUS it is called Smart Virus Removal Tool and I will provide you a link to it once it fixed the VIRUS.

I am trying some other things too, so let’s see what works and what doesn’t. But here is my warning for you:

1. Do not save your Google Talk Password on your Google Talk Client.

2. Avoid clicking on a “New Folder” as it could be an executable file. Make sure you verify this by right clicking on the New Folder and then checking the properties. If it is an exe file, the properties dialog will say it is a Program. Delete such files immediately.

3. Make sure you are not affected yet, go to Start > Search and in “All Files and Folders” search for “New Folder.exe” and make sure you search all hard drives. If you find this file, delete it right away.

4. Update your anti-virus programs right now. This VIRUS stops access to the internet from within these programs so it is very possible that your programs wont be able to get the latest VIRUS definitions once the computer has been affected.

5. Run at least one Full Computer Scan every day as the source of this VIRUS has not been found yet and it may be delivered without you noticing it.

6. BACKUP all important files. In case nothing can be done, you will need to format your computer and losing your crucial data is the worst thing you can do, so backup all your important data everyday till the VIRUS definitions have this VIRUS under control.

I will update you on how I faired on Removal of this VIRUS. In the mean time make sure you are not affected. Today is February 20th and it has been more than 12 hours since I am wrestling this VIRUS.I will keep you posted on my status.

Good Luck and be Safe

UPDATE ON THE NEW FOLDER VIRUS:

I WAS ABLE TO REMOVE THE VIRUS USING THE ESET NOD32 ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE.

———–

Try ESET NOD32 Antivirus free for 30 days: Download ESET NOD32 Now.

I have seen several entrepreneurs who decided to work from home, bought ebooks, courses, tutorials and every help that they could to make a significant income online. Most of these Internet Marketers try their best; invest huge chunks of money trying to make a few sales so they make more money and what not. Some of them get it in the first shot and start making some money, enough to keep the motivated, enough for them to keep looking for ways to increase these figures and enough to try different things now. 

But there is a huge percentage of Internet Marketers who try their best and then since they lost time and money, decide to give up, never to come back again.

I feel fortunate that I was able to meet two such people, who were on the verge of giving up, when I told them what I am going to tell you now, and it changed their life forever. They didn’t quit, and after only 6 months they are where they wanted to be.

It’s all about your outlook. So since I am confident I could save two successful businessmen from becoming a part of the 9-5 rat race, I hope this article gets more audience who gets a better prospective of this business and do the right thing from the beginning. So please read on and do leave me a note if you find this article helpful (it just keeps me motivated and justifies the time I spend to get this message across to you).

TOO EAGER, TOO BAD

If you are too eager to make money on the web, I won’t call it aggressiveness. An aggressive person is someone who doesn’t need much force to get into action, who is always ready to go and get what he needs, someone who is determined, focused and at it  but in this case, you are just doing a big damage to yourself by jumping out of the plane to conquer Mt. Everest, without a parachute.

Remember; treat your online ventures like your job. You get money, but you want to save some for the future, 401K, Retirement Plans, Fixed Deposits, etc etc. Similarly you want to make sure that whatever you are doing today, will be of use in the future.

Here is a very simple example: 

John Doe gets into Affiliate Marketing, opens a Google Adwords account, picks up an offer from Clickbank and sets up a campaign to promote that product. He spent months and lot of money on this offer and let’s say he made a lot of money too. Suddenly the merchant decided to stop selling the product. John’s income stops. Besides the money that he made, he doesn’t have anything now, he must start all over again - Find an offer, do a keyword research, setup the campaign, optimize it to maximize profits and be at the mercy of the merchant or Adwords. John is paying for the traffic he are getting from Adwords. If they come up with a new policy to increase his bid Cost per Click (CPC) because he doesn’t have a landing page, or he does’t have a good quality score, John is back to square one, ONCE AGAIN.

So no matter how eager you are, understand this industry. Remember, when you decided to become an Internet Marketer, you wanted to PERMANENTLY become an Internet marketer, not temporarily. You don’t want to be successful for just 3 months and then back to where you were. You want to build your empire, you want to make sure that even if you are not successful for the next 6 months or 1 year, you have done enough to be successful in the following years. Think big, think about tomorrow,  not yesterday or today. AND YOU HAVE TO THINK LIKE THIS.

Everyone wants to make money now. But if you have been in this industry for more than 1 year, tell me, when you look back at the year you’ve spend, with all the efforts that you’ve put in, have you done things that are helping you today, or let’s say making money or you today? If not, read on …

I don’t disagree that there are opportunities to make money instantly, or quickly, but those definitely don’t last too long. Everything that you are doing TODAY can help you for the rest of your life, if you do it right. Here is my example of a good plan for any internet marketer or affiliate.

A Fool Proof Approach to Affiliate Marketing

Let’s say you want to promote an affiliate offer. You can definitely do what John Doe did above, and you certainly don’t want to do that so you do your keyword research, build your campaign on Adwords, build a landing page to promote the product but here’s what you can do different.

(assuming you are promoting the solar panel offer on clickbank)
Buy a domain name that caters to the niche this product belongs to (in this case, energy). Then create a site (wordpress or drupal are good content management systems) with content about energy and what you can do to preserve it, or how you can save money by using alternative means, etc. You don’t need to have lot of content to  begin with. Just get the domain, put the site’s structure together, add basic information, one or two pages of content explaining the niche, and add your landing page to it. 

Now you are ready to start sending traffic to this site, but before that, see what all could you do and/or plan:

- Get a Visitor Data Tracking Tool like Long Tail Magic (specially because you just need one copy of this tool to track as many domains as you have). This tool will gather information that your visitors searched for and will help you understand what your visitors are looking for, and also what they would like to see.

- Spend an extra 10 bucks a week on a site like WebWritersPro.com and get SEO friendly content for your site. You’ll get ideas of what you want to get written based on the reports given by the tool above. Get one or two articles written every week and start adding to this site. 

- Send out a press release every month about something new that you added to your site (you can do it for a small fee, or even free).

- Try and get some inbound text links to your site.

And now, start sending traffic to your landing page.

Advantages if this approach:

1. By creating an entire site dedicated to the niche, you would save money as your CPC bids will be low due to a high quality score.

2. Now you have an entire site about this niche, you can promote more products with the same traffic.

3. You can make more money by Adsense or other advertising tools.

4. If (like in John Doe’s case above) the merchant decides to stop selling the product, you are SAVED. You have a site that talks about the niche and you can easily replace the old offer with a new one without any damage done to you. 

5. As your site gets older, it gets a high page rank and gets indexed in search engines. It will then start showing up on organic search results and maybe a few years down the line, you won’t even need to do any more PPC. AND YES THIS IS POSSIBLE.

6. If you look at step 1 in the approach, I recommended you to use a Visitor Data Tracking tool. This tool will give you a lot of data about what your visitors are searching for on search engines, etc. You used this information to optimize your site with high quality, highly sought after, search engine friendly content. And this will pay you for the rest of your life. Organic search results may go sky rocket, unless your competitor is reading this article right now as well

7. Even if you want to sell the site a year or a few years later, you’ll get a great price for it.

So just look back and see what did you really lose by this approach? You didn’t lose any time, because you never had to go back to square one, you didn’t lose any money, all that you had spend on tools, and content were an investment that pays itself off pretty well, and you now have an asset that will follow you wherever you go. Imagine getting money from all these sites after you’ve retired. And all you had to do was, do the basics, but the right way.

Conclusion:

No matter what you are doing today, just try to maximize everything. Remember, you need to plan for the future, not just today, so even if you are very successful today; think of what is the worst thing that can happen to your business, and start protecting it. Make fool proof plans and stick to them. 

If today, you aren’t where you wanted to be yesterday, make sure you work on tomorrow, so you can be where you want to be today.

With that said, I’ll let you go … I’ll come up with some more plans and ideas and share them with you. Bookmark this site.

DragonFly, originally uploaded by Blokh.

Hey all, before I share lot of fresh and new information with you, I just wanted to share this picture with you all.

I love shooting pictures of objects that we can not see commonly, and this one is no exception. This insect, as creepy as it might look to some, is a great asset to our eco system. It feeds on insects, flies and parasites that have the potential to spread diseases. It also eats mosquito larvae, so it basically keeps their population under control.

Cheers …

Wasp eating chicken, originally uploaded by Blokh.

To be honest, I was surprised to see a wasp eating chicken. This happened when my dog (Simba) decided to leave some of his food on the deck. I took him out for a walk and when I came back I saw several wasps sitting on this drumstick. I picked up the drumstick, took it in the sun and ran to get my camera, and started shooting …

Besides this picture, I spent so much time looking at the wasps very closely as they cut decent sized chunks of chicken (as you can see in the picture above) and fly away (to their hive, I would assume). It took one was around one minute to cut out a piece that size. It effortlessly chopped pieces like it was butter, not raw chicken.

I did not know that wasps eat meat. I thought that they would feed on flowers, nectar, pollen, just like honey bees. But what a contrasting characteristic this is.

Don’t use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my permission.
© All rights reserved.

Honey Bees Hovering …, originally uploaded by Blokh.

Bees collect pollen in the pollen basket and carry it back to the hive. In the hive, pollen is used as a protein source necessary during brood-rearing. In certain environments, excess pollen can be collected from the hives of A. mellifera and A. cerana. It is often eaten as a health supplement.

While bees take the pollen from one flower to another, this helps the flowers breed. This is an essential process for the floral life cycle.

Don’t use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my permission.
© All rights reserved.

Hi All,

Thanks for your emails …

Here are a few sites (I will keep adding to this post as I find more links) that buyers use to buy photographs directly from the photographers:

1. PhotographersDirect
2. PhotoReflect

With the gas prices going up, pretty much everything in our day to day living has changed, even if there are no significant changes in some cases, at least we all feel the pressure continuously. It is interesting to see how a few cents, can mean so much while we still don’t even think before we throw money at food, parking’s, bars, and other places.

I know some people who bought bicycles to go to places that are local, but they haven’t stopped eating or drinking out (interesting if you think about it).

So in this situation, all of us can do with some extra cash, I am sure !

How bout if I tell you that I will give you some tips on making money with something you already have?

You’ll love me, right? I know .. so here it is, read on and don’t keep wondering what’s the catch, or thinking that you are reading a sales letter. This is just my contribution to all of you who have been kind enough to visit my blog to read up some interesting stuff. Here is the interesting stuff for you, without any strings attached and without asking you for the money you are saving for your next refill

Making money with photography.

My first digital camera was an Olympus 2.0 mega-pixel camera that just took a picture, nothing more than that … It came with a 16MB memory card and took nearly 35 pictures on that, sometimes even more. The pictures looked great on the camera’s screen but looked like a scanned copy of an old picture on the computer with a high resolution. Lot of pixelization. Anyhow, that camera was $300 around 12 years back and I used it for 2 years before it fell in the river as I was holding the fishing rod in one hand and the camera in another trying to take a picture of a 12 pound “singara” (an Indian breed) fish. That was the last time I saw that camera.

I saved those pictures (ofcourse) and even though I changed a dozen computers since then, those pictures made their way through till now. First I backed them up on floppy drives, then CDs, then flash drives, now an external hard drive and so on. Then I bought a Sony DSC-V3 camera which is a 7.2 mega-pixel camera with a 3.5 inch screen, nice Carl Zeiss lens, abiliy to hold both Memory Stick and Compact Flash Card and so much more (also the ability to take raw pictures).

Anyhow moving forward, I took another million pictures, and saved most of em then I bought a Canon 40D digital SLR Camera. To read its specs, you are better off visiting canon.com rather than me typing it here. So this is the history of me buying cameras and storing pictures which did not do anything for more than a decade.

You can see some of my favorite shots at www.flickr.com/photos/blokh/

So a very close friend of mine gave me this suggestion and here I am forwarding it to you …

When you have some free time (don’t compromise on your work or family time, it is the most important time of your life), when you have some totally free time, like when you are between work, taking breaks, etc, just go through the pictures you have collected over the years. Find the non-personal pictures, or some nice professional personal ones that you don’t mind sharing, and save them to one of your folders on your computer. Pick out the ones you think are the best (could be any number - 2, 10s, 100s, 1000s) and upload them to flickr (flickr.com) and gettyimages, and photos.com, and photographersdirect.com and make them public so peope can view em and bid on these pictures. Misuse of pictures (usually from the web) has been a major issue now and lot of lawsuits are being filed by individuals and companies on people who just scrap the pictures and use em on their blogs, magazines and websites. So this is your time to allow these people to buy your picture and use them on their media instead.

Unless you are an exceptional photographer with some very high quality shots, don’t expect a fortune for your pictures, but just remember, that each picture can be sold multiple times, which means that if you have an audience and demand for the kind of picture you have, you will get a residual income on that picture(s).

A buyer wanted to buy an old picture I clicked of myself jumping off the ground on my motorcycle 12 years ago. I thought that picture was nice but only good for me as a memory, but it so happened that a magazine was doing a comparison of today’s motor-sports with that of the 90s and my picture was the best one they could have used, so they paid me $35 for that picture. Cheap huh ? I sold 5 more copies of it since then.

So as you go along and add picture to your gallery, you will find clientele and people willing to buy your images.

I know of an ebook that takes you through steps of what you can do to start making money from your pictures, I will see if I can find it and give you a link … if you need the link urgently, email me and I will look it up and send you the info.

Till then, go now and find some nice pictures that you clicked when you went out with your family for picnics, hikes, fishing, hunting, driving, sight seeing or just to visit your family or friends and build your collection. Once you have a handful pictures ready, upload them to the sites I mentioned above, I am sure you will be benefited.

If you need personal help with this, email me and I may be able to help you over email or phone. My email address is raakesh a.t. raakesh.com

So Long …