Can’t Get Rich

Right now I have around twenty unanswered ReviewU requests. They’re sitting in my queue, alone and unloved, waiting for the day that I will write about them. Why haven’t I reviewed these sites yet? Well, honestly, there’s nothing wrong with most of them. They’re perfectly good sites, and I like to have something to rant about in my ReviewU entries. In other words, I don’t find them interesting and don’t really want to write about them.

Yesterday this site passed 100 RSS readers for the very first time. It occurred to me that I now have a sizeable audience, and that a plug from me may hold some value. I’ve always said that it’s ultimately up to me whether or not I review your site in a ReviewU, and now I’d like to launch a new service that will guarantee a review: ReviewU Now. This service will be pretty similar to ReviewMe, but without the middle man. In exchange for a guaranteed 300+ word review, I’ll be charging $$$. What will I do with that money? Well, I’ll probably use it to buy a bunch of Jones Soda, which I happen to adore. I’ll then take a picture of me drinking said soda with a sign with your site’s logo/URL on it. While this serves no practical purpose for you, it increases brand recognition for me. As far as I know, I’ll be the only blogger who reviews sites while drinking Jones Soda.

I’ll still offer free reviews, but of course, those aren’t guaranteed. If you absolutely want/need a review from this site, you’ll have to pay up. I’m starting it at $10 per review, and I’ll be increasing the price for every additional 100 RSS readers I get ($20 for 200 readers, $30 for 300, etc). I’ll scale that back once I hit 1,000 readers, whenever that happens.

I’ll be updating the ReviewU page shortly, and I’ll have a new button up as soon as I can. I’m curious to see how this will be received, so please let me know what you guys think.

EDIT: Button is up and the ReviewU page has been updated to include a description of the service and a paypal button.

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I guess it was only a matter of time until somebody asked me to review a gaming blog. Well, the author of Gaming Chronicle wrote in to request a ReviewU, and I couldn’t refuse. The site is just good enough to warrant consideration, and just bad enough to catch my attention.

The site

As the name implies, this is a gaming blog. A gaming blog that is still in diapers. It looks like the first post was made on February 13th. Normally I wouldn’t waste time reviewing such a new blog, but this one seems to be heading in the right direction, and I like to encourage sites that have potential. Other than that, it’s just your standard gaming site: Gaming reviews, gaming strategies, gaming tips. Gaming.

The good

Let’s start from the top. First of all, I like the header (although I don’t recognize half of those characters. I need an Xbox 360 and soon). Pretty decently done, and it matches the color scheme of the site perfectly. Speaking of the color scheme, I like it. I’ve mentioned before that I prefer darker colors when reading, and this site makes good use of black, blue, and white. Very subdued. As for the layout, it works pretty well. The two-column sidebar doesn’t crowd the posts, which is nice. While I’m on the subject of posts, take a look at them: They’re original, they don’t have any glaring spelling or grammatical errors, and they’re updated every couple of days. This site is on the right track.

Oh, and very clever use of the Firefox referral link in the top-right. For those of you who don’t know, Firefox has an affiliate program (through Google). Every time someone downloads and installs Firefox via that link, he gets a dollar. One thing though - I’m already using Firefox, so I shouldn’t be seeing that text. Familiarize yourself with conditional comments and make it so that only IE users see that link.

The bad

It wouldn’t be a ReviewU without some criticism. First off, I’m seeing too many Adsense blocks. When I see a brand-new blog with only eight posts and four Adsense blocks, I see someone who’s blogging for the money, not for enjoyment. Remember my recent tirade against video game blogs? That’s what I was ranting about (people who focus on ads, not content). Here’s another thing to add to the list of things that shouldn’t be there: The Feedburner widget. Right now it’s proudly displaying zero readers. Personally, I’d find that embarrassing. Take that thing down until you get some more (or any) readers. Also, on the subject of widgets, the MyBlogLog viewer looks out of place. Personally, I’d just ditch it. Gaming blogs tend to focus more on content than reader interaction anyway.

Oh, and one more thing: gamingchronicle.blogspot.com. Fix the URL before you do any serious monetization.

Overall, not a bad site

This blog has lots of potential. Not for making money, but to get the author’s name out there. Keep updating two to three times per week, and with a couple of years and some luck, you might just make it big.

Oh, and try to focus mainly on newer games. That Warcraft III post? That would have been interesting six years ago.

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The Sly Guy wrote in to request a ReviewU for his site, Slyvisions, and I just…wait…oh. Well, this is a little jarring. It’s a bit like staring into the future. Oh well, let’s just jump right in.

The layout

Man, what a great layout. Simple, yet stylish. It emphasizes content more than ads, it’s got a great color scheme, and there’s just something about it that feels right. Yeah, I’d say the layout is just perfect. Good placement of the RSS widget too, I hadn’t thought of that.

Ok, I have to be honest. When I picked this theme, I picked it because A.) I liked it and B.) I’d never seen another blog using it. Now I’ve found a blog that’s similar to mine, is in the same niche, has more readers, and has been around much longer. Does this make me an unintentional copycat? My world is shattered.

Anyway, moving on.

The content

His site is, go figure, a make money online blog. Recently, he has:

• Done a review of Jackie’s Biz Blog (like me)
• Released his first eBook (like me)
• Talked about making money with an affiliate network (like me)
• Talked about a Wordpress Plugin (like me)

He also has a tools page, where you can find a variety of useful tools for bloggers and webmasters.

My, this is getting unsettling.

Anyway, his content all seems to be original and thoughtful, and he updates every 1-3 days, so no complaints here. Nice to see a blog that isn’t just gushing about whatever Chow or Shoe has said recently.

The $$$

He seems to be where I’d like to be in a few months. In terms of advertising, he sells monthly 125×125 spots, 468×60 banners, paid reviews, site plugs, RSS ads, and he has the top spots widget. Not bad. I’ll have to take notes. He also advertises his professional services. Something about consulting with word-of-mouth preferred to cash. Not a bad idea if you’re trying to get your name out there.

The bottom line

Again, we have another site that I can’t rip to shreds because there’s really nothing wrong with it. He’s got the advertising, the numbers, and the content (and don’t forget about the awesome Wordpress theme). Sure, the make money online niche is about as new and edgy as a watermelon, but he’s been in it for months, so he can do whatever he wants.

Actually, there is one thing that I don’t like. He has a lot more RSS readers than I do. Why don’t you guys subscribe to my feed and help my ego about a bit?

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Jackie, of Jackie’s Biz Blog, wrote in to request a ReviewU. I’m running out of witty things to say here in the introduction, so let’s just dive into the review.

First impressions

Before I even started reading Jackie’s entries, I noticed one feature that really stands out on this blog: Buttons. Widgets. Graphics. Blinking things, everywhere. Two columns of graphics and widgets (including the worthless Blogrush widget), a ridiculous number of banners in her most recent post (to be fair, they were the focus of her article), and at the bottom of every post, this:

I can readily identify eight of those buttons (Squidoo, Stumbleupon, Netscape, digg, Facebook, Yahoo, Google, and delicious). The other forty-two, I’ve never heard of. I can understand wanting to submit your articles to the big social bookmarking sites, but this widget always make me cringe. Really, fifty social bookmarking sites is excessive, and I’d be very surprised if the majority of those sites helped build permanent traffic.

I’m not a huge fan of social bookmarking sites, so I personally can’t recommend using a plugin like this. Those folks are very fickle, popping onto your site and then disappearing forever. I’d say around 1% of my Stumbleupon hits actually stick around for more than a day or two. Personally, I believe relying on such methods to build traffic will only result in disappointment.

Anyway

On to the meat of the site. Essentially, this looks like just another make money online blog, but there are two key differences:

1. She actually DOES make money online, through a variety of methods (aren’t you all jealous?). Apparently she’s been doing it for six years. Let’s see, what was I doing six years ago? I believe I was in my parents’ basement, playing Playstation games and working at an Arby’s. Yeah, that sounds about right.
2. Much in the same way some of my past reviewees have been milking the “I’m a teenager and I make money online” theme, Jackie appears to be milking the “I’m a stay at home mom and I make money online” idea. That’s good, it separates her from the masses. It’s good to show a little personality while blogging.

Aside from that, it’s just another making money blog (although it has an air of legitimacy, which is rare). Contests, happenings in the blogosphere (I still hate that word), and the like. As for monetization, there’s not much (I’m guessing she doesn’t really need draw a big income from her blog). She has an empty Scratchback widget with spots for sale for $5, the occasional affiliate ad (Amazon, for example), and that “Buy me a *blank*” link at the bottom of every post. She seems to prefer coffee as her beverage of choice. If I ever use that method, I’m going for tea. Not just any tea, mind you, but those gigantic 24 ounce cans of Arizona flavored iced tea. 24 ounces for a dollar. That stuff is great.

What I would change

Not a whole lot, really. The theme is nothing special, but it works. I’d consider changing or removing the social bookmarking plugin, and I’d flat out drop Blogrush (as I said, worthless). I’d also consider reducing the total number of posts displayed on the front page. Right now, displaying ten posts makes the page incredibly long, and increases the loading time. I’d cut it down to five. Other than that, the site is fine. She updates consistently, she knows what she’s talking about, and she’s obviously blogging just because she enjoys it. That earns big points with me, as I can’t stand people who blog solely for cash.

Overall, a good site.

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I’ve been buried under an avalanche of ReviewU requests, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to do more than one per week. Today’s ReviewU request comes from Marshall of How to Make a Million Dollars. New readers, pay attention. After reading this review, you’ll understand why my ReviewU offer comes with a disclaimer.

Let’s get started

A good place to start would be the URL:

howtomakeamilliondollars.blogspot.com

Aaaand, credibility destroyed. No, I’m serious. Seeing blogspot, xanga, or livejournal in a blog’s URL immediately makes me question the value of the site. There’s nothing wrong with free blogging platforms if you want to keep a personal blog, but if you want to be taken seriously, you should at least have your own domain name. I happen to know blogspot allows you to dump the *.blogspot.com and use your own domain name, so I’d recommend taking that route if you don’t want to shell out the $$$ for webhosting. Domain registration usually costs less than $10, so if you want to show people that you’re serious about making money online, investing in a good domain name is usually the best place to start.

As a side note, Wordpress has the ability to import posts and tags from blogspot blogs, so don’t think you can’t change platforms. I ran my personal blog on blogspot for months before switching to Wordpress, and the import took less than 5 minutes. In other words, once you start making more than $20/month with your blog, ditch the free hosting and move to Wordpress. It gives you a lot more control over layout, widgets, and pretty much everything.

Moving on

Right. Let’s take a look at the content. The site is named “How to Make a Million Dollars”, but I’m mostly seeing general financial tips. That’s fine, I’m well aware that there’s no easy way to become a millionaire, and his advice seems sound. You know what else I’m noticing about the content? There’s a ton of white space in it. Even the contact page has an unnecessarily huge break in it. Go easy on the double spacing.

He also seems to take the traditional approach to saving. You know, work as hard as you can, stash your money away, and retire at 65. Personally, I hate that idea, and I think it’s the root of our stressed out, unhealthy society. People should really question the traditional ‘work until you’re old’ retirement model. Congratulations, you’ve worked your entire life and now you can stop working. What’s the point? You’re now too old to do anything fun, you’re drop-dead bored from the lack of mental stimulation, and you’re basically just coasting on your saved-up funds until you die. You spent your entire youth looking forward, but now you can’t help but look back. Personally, I want to work until I’m physically incapable of working, taking mini-retirements throughout my entire life. Two weeks per year is not enough vacation time, in my opinion. I plan on working for a couple of years, taking a year and a half to travel, see, and live my life, and then repeating the whole process. How I do that is up for debate at the moment, but the point is, I want to get away from the traditional work/retire system. Go read the book “The 4 hour work week”. It’ll change the way you look at life.

Anyway, back to the site.

The layout

Not bad for a blogspot blog. Three columns, nice header, good color scheme, etc. Overall, it’s very average. I’d take the Mybloglog widget out of the footer though. Nobody’s going to see it down there.

The $$$

As you know, you have to be trying to make money with your site in order to be eligible for a ReviewU. This guy has three Adsense blocks, one Adbright block, and it looks like a couple of affiliate text links (not sure on this one). Those are fine, if a little excessive.

You know what’s not fine though? He has one of those fade-in ads set up. You know, the ones that don’t appear until after you’ve loaded the page, and then they gradually fade in to display another site with a ’skip this ad’ button on the top. I hate those ads. They’re just about as annoying as popups, and they’re a good way to drive off new readers.

One more thing

I know I harp on this all the time, but people, please: Set a consistent update schedule! Nobody will take you seriously if you don’t update regularly. Let’s take a look at his time stamps:

• January 16, 2008
• January 04, 2008
• January 01, 2008
• December 18, 2007
• December 03, 2007

There’s no consistency here. If you’re running a hobby blog, that’s fine, update whenever you want. If you’re actively trying to monetize, though, update regularly. It doesn’t even have to be daily, as long as it’s consistent. If you can’t produce content quickly enough, start with twice a week, on Monday and Friday. Gradually move up to three times per week when you’re comfortable with it.

The bottom line

This site has lots of potential. In this debt-ridden country, people love to read about ways they can save money and improve their lives. In other words, How to Make a Million Dollars is sitting in a good niche, ripe for plunder. Make a few of the changes I’ve outlined, and you’ll be good to go.

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