Before starting this wonderful website of mine, I frequented a couple select blogs to keep up-to-date with news about anything from celebrities to technology. Occasionally, I would even visit some new and potentially interesting sites.Unfortunately, it seems that every other website is trying to convince the general public that the Internet is a goldmine. Bloggers have turned the Internet and the idea of blogging into the virtual California gold rush.
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I am impulsive. Some would even say very impulsive. Now let me be clear; impulsive + promise of quick money = wasted time and resources. Shocking, I know. But it just doesn’t seem possible to make money as easily as some of these website might suggest, or I’m retarded.
This is more of a public service announcement than anything else. If you have just read an amazing “how to” or found a great deal online for an e-book, please take a couple minutes to rethink your willingness to just hand over your money to people. If after some research you still want to give someone your hard-earned money then my email is mrimpulsive@mrimpulsive.com . Any monies are much appreciated and will be used on myself.
Now let’s break down the 3 most common ideas to get rich quick online and the hustlers peddling these ideas.
1) Creating a blog and monetizing it.
Problogger.net – easily the biggest fraud site. This guy makes his money convincing people they can earn 7 figures blogging, and then having them sign up for shit under his affiliate codes. Not to mention, he never posts anything unique or groundbreaking. He is just reprocessing the same garbage that the other scam artists are putting out.
Johnchow.com - A website that is making money solely by advertising programs with lines such as “each $5,000 extra income everyday with no effort” and then conning people into signing up for them/
This is EASILY the most popular method for attempting to live a life of leisure via the internet. It does not work. Sure, you will probably make some money through your website, but the websites that everyone models their own after are years old and have teams of writers and staff. Not to mention thousands, if not millions, of unique visitors everyday. For example, I bought hosting and 6 domain names solely because I went through a faze thinking that blogging will help me pay for college. A few good articles from Upstartblogger.com and a few good reviews and tips for adsense and I’m hooked like a crack-head. Don’t get me wrong, it may pay for my college, but not today/tomorrow/this year. A blog is a long term investment. The hours necessary to commit to blogging are similar to working a full-time job, and when you understand that similarity, blogging does not pay well per hour.
I’ve simplified the mindset behind blogging for money into this, “forget advertisements and niche choice. Focus on readability and quality. Once traffic comes, it will be bringning the money along with it.”
A couple of websites that really helped me in designing a blog and picking a topic, or a few, that I was truelly passionate about were:
Upstartblogger.com – a brutally honest look on blogging, design, seo, and the life of Ashley Morgan (musician, not porn star)
StevePavlina.com – a great guide that really opened my eyes to the joys of writing a quality blog. This was the blog that helped me understand that unique posts that are long and full of ideas are what generate traffic, not short 2-liners being posted all day. Even if your content is shitty and your view so extreme that no one agrees, if your content is unique your traffic will grow. This site cleared that up for me.
