This is not a “Cinderella Man” post, not really anyway…and yes, you really can buy one of the best movies of all time, but my point in posting it is that you’d go on a crazy shopping spree at Amazon that if you’ve seen the movie, remember the scene where Russell Crowe has his hat out, looking for money for his family? That scene gets to me – and I (unfortunately) understand it.
Cinderella Man
(( BUT ))
This post isn’t (really) like that.
Let me cut the butter straight, no crumbs, whatever the heck that means: I’ve been blogging here as a way to communicate what I do to make money online, the fact is that primarily for this year that has meant Elance, with a few thousand coming in from passive income blogs.
I’ve been profitable online from day one, like probably all of you. I read the XFactor AdSense ebook and I went straight to the profit centers: making self-hosted sites, skipping the usual route of Web 2.0 sites in favor of Elance and my own properties.
This blog – the one that gets the most traffic by far compared to my more profitable micro-niche websites – gets fairly “Meh!” results insofar as profit goes. To tell the truth, I’ve wrestled with the idea of what I’m doing with it at all, but most of my writing for the love of writing and business I generally share here.
I probably will continue to make money as a writer, but hate having a blog that isn’t making an income – and let me be careful to say that this blog is profitable, it’s more than made up for the cost of hosting it – but it could generate more I’m sure.
When it comes to time spent, this blog is the most “active income” of my websites – although this is my favorite place to write.
What I’m driving at is that this is where I want to do most of my blogging – but it’s also the least profitable venture for me. My solution?
First:
Don’t read this post and give me a pity purchase – only buy a product when you would have otherwise, based on my review or whatever.
I don’t believe in forcing an issue or manipulating a sale – I once had a person tell me that “When you begin using Unique Article Wizard or Awebber, you HAVE TO use my affiliate link.”
Needless to say – the person never saw a sale from me. The point is: I don’t like that type of sales “tactic,” demanding or manipulating a sale – gimme a break! Where’s the skill in that?
It’s the move of a bully – and I don’t get bullied. But – if you don’t buy through my links…
Well. You will double in weight and develop moles on your nose, and your friends might think you smell odd, all of a sudden. Just a prediction.
My philosophy is that if you want a sale, you’ll need to earn it – so only buy from me when I’ve done that.
So I ask you that you only purchase from me if or when I deserve the sale, and even then: my goodness, you’re free to never buy a thing from me!
Support Me and This Blog Shopping Amazon
I have an Amazon kick going lately – as you can tell from my Amazonian Profit Plan fascination (I do very highly recommend the book, and thank you for buying through that link), and I learned this from Dave at Making Money On the Internet Free, so I’ll give it a shot.
In my sidebar (which I’m incessantly tweaking), I have put an Amazon graphic with a link below it to shop Amazon. It reads:
Click HERE To Shop Amazon
The picture is subject to change, but you can’t miss it (it’s not clickable though, the link to go to Amazon is underneath it since it goes to a category rather than a product).
I don’t want to make you buy something you wouldn’t have bought otherwise – ever! – I only ask that you think of me when you next shop at Amazon.
Let us agree on this, then:
If you don’t clear your cookies and shop through my Amazon link, then give yourself a stern look, or 40 lashes minus one, something like that.
Alright, not really – but if you would be so kind to do this when you shop Amazon:
Use my Amazon link, and put the items into your shopping cart at Amazon. That way, you don’t have to buy “now” per se, and gives my cookie a little life beyond the usual 24 hours.
IF
And only
IF
You happen to be shopping at Amazon - pay me a visit, clear your cookies (no I don’t mean barf in a bag, you really shouldn’t play around with bulemia), and buy through my links.
Be it a toothbrush, a book, a roll of toilet paper or a box of tissues – I am asking for your support because every bit does count.
I don’t want to cajole you to buy a jet airplane through that link – unless of course you wouldn’t mind? - anything will do, because with Amazon my commission will increase based on the quantity of products sold, regardless of price tag.
Buy from my “Recommended Tools” page.
In the upper-right of this blog (and in the sidebar) is a “Recommended Tools” page along with a few specific reviews underneath it in the drop-down. When you’re buying IM tools – if you want to buy the tools I use (and a few I recommend but haven’t used, but I’ll tell you which is which)…
See my Recommended Tools or one of the reviews below the page (upper-right, just above the header).
Links and Social Sharing
Another way you can support this blog, without spending a dime: I’ve included a linkbox underneath all posts. Use that when you want to link to my posts.
Or: use the OnlyWire drop-down menu to socially bookmark, Tweet, etc. a post you like. I am also trying to build my Twitter list and Facebook contacts – and I do use both. The reason being, since I am a freelance writer / marketer – it always helps to have a network of sorts.
It’s also a lonely biz – so I’m pretty social when I have the time. Hit me up on my Contacts page for the deets, again in the header.
I did also begin a new affiliate program with ThinkGeek.com – their link is in the right sidebar as well.
Why them? Dude – those guys have nothing but the coolest, funnest and hands-down most creative gifts I’ve seen in a while. They’re my “style” of e-store, and they had some products I wanted for my Halloween websites. I hope some of that traffic converts into Christmas shopping traffic, they do have some great gifts.
With the shopping season coming up, by all means, use my links to shop. Otherwise I’m skinning my neighbor’s pets for food. That’s on you.
Get the Amazonian Profit Plan – Worth It!
And if you haven’t yet, check out my The Amazonian Profit Plan review as to why I’m on this Amazon kick to begin with. Thanks, all, for your support, I do appreciate it.
I don’t plug every fool book out there, although I did learn a lot from John XFactor’s AdSense Master’s Course: because it’s not my business model any longer, I don’t plug it. The Amazonian Profit Plan is descriptive of where I’m headed and gets my 20 thumbs up.
20 thumbs = Big family…
I want to say there are a number of ways to support this blog – but using my Amazon link would be, I think, the “least invasive” since so many shop there anyway.
Otherwise, you can hire me (the only trouble is I can only work so fast…), or just buy anything you see linked to on the site, such as the Amazonian Profit Plan. Or anything in my sidebar, footer, Recommended Tools page…
Support Me Without Spending A Dime
See this page to Share and Bookmark me – especially on Twitter (TheAvgGenius is me) and Facebook (James TheJust). Would love to grow my Facebook “likes” and Tweets, especially since Google is now weighing those social profiles more heavily (see the Webmaster videos Matt Cutts has put out in December of 2010).
Like me, Tweet me, Add me as a Facebook friend, Digg me, SERPd me, Del.ici.ous. me ?…hm…
Read more about how to social bookmark me.
One last way you can support me that doesn’t involve you actually paying anything is if you would use my Hubpages link to go to HP to build your own HubPages – I get a commission if you build hubs and then others click the ads – or if you happen to click ads after coming through my links – something like that…
- I do want you to be honest with those AdSense clicks on my Hubs -
But here are two of my Hubs:
Coming up shortly (I hope) is an interview with someone who’s been really informative with Clickbank success recently, I think the interview will give you some helpful tips you don’t want to miss, and my own experience on rapid indexing and also on ranking inner pages…
I frankly don’t know why everyone thinks inner pages are so hard to rank – they’re my top performers, personally…I’ll be dissecting what I think I did right with my top earner, and what I did wrong with everything else. That will be either right after or before the interview, depending on when those questions get answered.
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