Can’t Get Rich

Hey guys, I decided to do a video post for today. This will be my first video post, so I hope you like it. It’s just a simple little SEO trick I found to increase your site’s ranking in the SERPs. Hope you find it useful.

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I struck on something brilliant (read: lucky) yesterday, and I’ve been spending all of my time promoting it. I don’t want to tell what it is too soon (just in case it falls flat), but if it works like I think it will, I’ll be sure to let you guys know. I’ll give you a hint though:

Morons + Email Submits + Good Domain Name + New Campaign + Relevant to Current Events = Profit.

In addition to that idea, I’ve been doing some research on using proxies and CPM ads to make the $$$. If you don’t know what a CPM ad is, basically you are paid a set rate per thousands views. I know next to nothing about what those types of ads generally go for, so I’m looking around. Also, unless I can talk my web host into turning a blind eye to my system resource usage, I may have to look into getting a VPS (hopefully not though).

To top it all off, I’m still working on some craigslist ads that trigger an autoresponder with my product affiliate link. Those haven’t been too terribly successful, and I’m working on making new ads for different cities.

So yeah. Busy day. I don’t have anything too terribly witty or interesting to say, so why not take a look at some people who do?

• Cow is picking up Entrecard for a month again to prove that (most of) its traffic is worthless. Preaching to the choir here.
• Paul is answering questions. He still hasn’t answered mine though (Do you play Smash Bros?).
• Jason interviewed some big important guy. Definitely an interesting read.

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There’s nothing quite as emasculating as knowing that your freedom of speech comes with a price tag in this country.

Ok, so here’s what happened yesterday: I got a friendly little email from the fine folks at Clickbooth suggesting that I take down my post about them or face a possible lawsuit. On one hand, I’m flattered that they think my little site matters enough to be considered a threat, but on the other hand, I’m a poor college student who doesn’t have the money to hire a lawyer or the time to go to court. That being said, I took the post down.

I can honestly say that I haven’t been this frustrated in a long time. I know that they have absolutely no chance of winning a lawsuit against me, as all of what I wrote is protected under the first amendment, but at the same time I know that they can take advantage of the legal system to tie me up in court for months. They have the money to do that, and I don’t, so therefore they win. It’s infuriating to know that I have to back my words up with dollars in order to freely write them down.

That being said, I really liked what I had written for that post, and I feel that people need to know about Clickbooth’s (alleged) business practices, so I’m going to summarize right now why I will never do business with them:

• They sent me a fairly threatening email, letting me know that others who have written things similar to what I wrote have been sued.
• They’re suing Wickedfire.
• Various members of Wickedfire have reported some (alleged) shady business practices.
• Various members of Digital Point forums have reported some (alleged) shady business practices.
• They seem to like threatening bloggers with lawsuits. In addition to myself, I know of at least one other blogger who has been threatened.

So there you go. I think you guys should know what kind of (alleged) activities this company takes part in, so hopefully you all can take this information and avoid a headache. Speaking of headaches, I’m going to try to avoid potentially sticky situations like this in the future by removing my personal liability from the picture. Can’t Get Rich LLC sounds pretty catchy, don’t you think?

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Remember that post I wrote a few days ago about Clickbooth? Well, they aren’t too happy with it. I just received an email threatening possible legal action.

Yes, that’s right. I report on a current event in the affiliate marketing world, and I get threatened with a (potential) lawsuit. Apparently expressing an opinion constitutes libel.

It has been brought to our attention that a post titled “Don’t Do Business with Clickbooth” was recently created regarding the performance-based network, Clickbooth.com. It was posted March 9, 2008.

The aforementioned post’s content contains defamatory statements referencing Clickbooth and its owner, John Lemp. The information throughout the post is considered libelous, and legal action has already been taken against another such individual publishing similar statements.

I know they’re just bluffing (pesky freedom of speech and all that), but I don’t have the means to stand up to these guys. I’m just a poor college student. I’m going to get some advice from the guys over at Wickedfire, and then go from there.

EDIT: I just took the post down. Like I said, I don’t have the time or resources to deal with this bullshit. Lawyers - 1, freedom of speech - 0.

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I haven’t had a whole lot of success with pay per click marketing lately. My idea to use iframes instead of my own landing pages was a complete and utter failure, so I scrapped that idea and went back to designing my own landing pages. That also failed. With that said, I’m discontinuing all of my active PPC campaigns until I figure out what I’m doing wrong. I plan on asking a lot of questions over at Wickedfire, reading some ebooks that I have obtained through questionable means, and basically trying to figure out how the big guys do it.

In the meantime, I’m going to take another approach to affiliate marketing: Content sites. You know, actual, useful websites with ads targeted towards whatever subject the site is on. I don’t have a very large portfolio of existing sites, so this situation has me wondering what I can actually write about to attract readers. Basically, I can write about something I enjoy doing, or something that I’m good at.

Hobbies

• Video games. At the risk of looking like a complete and total hypocrite, I’ve been giving some thought to making a game site. This idea is pretty low on my list at the moment, as I doubt I’d be able to update daily or attract a sizable readership.
• Powerisers. If you don’t know what they are, go do a Google image search. They’re a lot of fun, but they’ve been around forever so competition will be fierce. If I wanted to make a halfway decent content site about these, I’d have to have reviews, a forum, videos, etc. I don’t think I’ll have the time to build and maintain such a site.
• Book reviews. I’m not arrogant enough to think that anybody out there would care about what I have to say about books. On top of that, I read books that I think look interesting, regardless of when they were published. I don’t think anybody is going to care about a review for a book that was written fifteen years ago.

Skills

• Computer tutorials. This one I’m actually giving some thought to. I have a lot of experience with a few Windows-based web hosting control panels, and one of them has very little documentation at all. I’m seriously considering starting a site with tutorials and a forum to make up for this lack of documentation. I could monetize this venture a variety of ways:
  1. Create a members-only knowledgebase and have people pay to get in.
  2. Web hosting affiliate programs.
  3. Consulting.
  4. Hope the company buys the site from me.

  We’ll see how this turns out.

All in all, I’m not giving up on affiliate marketing, I’m just taking a different approach. The rest of you should learn from my example though- Don’t just dive into something that sounds good. Do your research first or it might cost you.

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