Can’t Get Rich

I think anybody who’s trying to make money online should have a code of ethics to stick to. I’ve spent a good amount of time thinking about what’s right and wrong in the online world, and I think I’ve come up with a good set of guidelines that I try to follow:

Splogs

For starters, let’s talk about splogs (or autoblogs). Splogs are usually frowned upon by…nearly everybody, but I tend to look at them differently. For starters, they’re a great way to get backlinks to a domain that you’re not actively using at the moment. Also, I don’t really mind when I see pingbacks from splogs show up in my spam queue. The sites are almost always terrible and I know that nobody would actively seek them out, plus they have a linkback to this site. I get slightly more page rank and my rank in the SERPs goes up a bit. Everybody wins.

On the other hand, some bloggers are a little more protective of their content than I am. Because of this, I’d say you should always credit the original post, and always respect take-down notices. Don’t ever stoop to plagiarism.

If you want to trying making an autoblog, here are a few tips:

• Check your email daily for takedown notices
• Turn off autopinging to help cover your tracks
• Use a scraper that always cites the source

Making money off of current events

In my eBook, you may have noticed that I suggest using current events as a springboard for getting wide circulation of your ads. There’s a limit to that. I must admit that it crossed my mind to make an online poll about Heath Ledger’s death (Was it a suicide or an accident? Vote and win.). I considered that idea for about two seconds before I threw it out. Something like that would be a really scummy thing to do. Bottom line, don’t try to profit off of a death or tragedy.

Withholding information

When it comes to numbers, don’t lie to your readers, but don’t be afraid to withhold information. For instance, none of you know how many hits this site gets per day. Maybe that’s because I don’t like to brag, maybe it’s because it jumps up and down like a 5 year old on crack. You’ll never know until I decide to tell you.

You should always try to be honest with your readers, but keeping some information private isn’t a bad thing.

Anyway

Those are a few rules I try to follow. Just because the Internet is fairly anonymous doesn’t mean you should do whatever you please. Stick to your ethics and people will trust you.

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