Earn A Commission On Free Downloads

This really does sound too good to be true, but I can't find a catch, so I'm going to try it out. If you feel like it, have a go yourself.

The idea is that people download the Free programs (of value in themselves), and then want to go further and purchase the products anyway. The good news is that you earn a commission on the free downloads anyway. The bad news... I can't find any bad news. Anyone that wants to pay me money for giving other people stuff for free has my vote any day of the week. 

I'll update if I do find a catch though, so stand by. 

The trick now is to go out and multiply traffic and linking and get people to download the product in the first place. I've taken a really good look at the free bundle and there are some awesome ideas in them. Especially for beginners. Seven really good programs for free? Why not?

Check it out if you want to HERE

And feel free to comment with your own quick reviews and thoughts.

Everyone's read this scam before, or at least anyone with an email address

Yesterday I received an email from a scam "artist", letting me know that he had a large chunk or the late Kerry Packer's assets in holding, and that he wished my assistance to 'launder' the assets through a US bank. Why a criminal would need a 'good Christian' person to undertake criminal activity I don't know. But hey.

I replied to the email, and having imparted a fair bit of information on Mr Packer's estate (all of which is public domain information) and eagerly awaited any reply at all, but didn't expect one.

I received a reply!! How cool! Well, I thought it was cool until I actually read the second email I received. I have included my reply, (and the reply I received) for your entertainment. No offense is intended, and the image contained is (as far as I'm aware) public domain, and no reference is required, but it needs to be stated that the image is NOT MINE, I did not create it, and I do not expect to profit in anyway from the image.

If the creator wants me to remove it, please send me a message or reply to the post and I will do so immediately.

My favorite apparent Scam for today

It sounds to good to be true... $10 per pay-per-click and up to $100 to read emails!! It really, really does sound too good to be true! And that's because it probably is one of the worst scams I've ever come across on the net.

Please, please, never-ever-ever join this site, but if you do feel the need to test it out, don't waste your money on the $20 upgrade.

A minimum amount of $75 000 must be reached for payout, unless you upgrade to a Gold Member, and then there is no minimum payout. But you will be waiting a minimum of 30 days for payout, and possibly longer, but you'll never know.

Quote from the website FAQ itslef:
"All payment requests made in the current month are processed within 30 days of the following month with upgraded members being the very first to be paid. Sometimes under certain circumstances of a lot of payment requests you may have to wait a reasonably time longer. When such unfortunates occur we usually send our members out a free gift. No matter how long it takes all members will be paid according to our terms of service."

And this quote from the Terms of Service on the site
"Giga-Mails has the right, in its sole discretion, to suspend or cancel, at any time and for any reason, a members membership in and access to Giga-Mails website and Giga-Mails sevices. All Earnings may be cancelled in Giga-Mails sole discretion."

So not only could you be waiting an indefinite period of time for your payout, but Giga-Mail can, if they don't feel like paying you, cancel your earnings or your account. For any reason at all.

YOU WILL NEVER GET ANY MONEY FROM THIS SITE. Simple.

The Twitter Traffic Machine

The Twitter Traffic Machine looks like a really good system, and seems to be working really well for a lot of people. Not least of all for its creator, Bill Crosby (possibly a pseudonym). The Twitter Traffic Machine (TTM from this point) is based on the idea that the more followers you have, the higher the number of clicks to any link you post. Fair enough. Good theory. Does it work? Kind of. Does it boost your earnings? Probably not.

I had a good look at the ideas in the six videos that Bill has in his product, and the simple fact is, the TTM is badly out of date. When the product first launched, Twitter itself was still in the founding stages, but growing rapidly, so not many people on Twitter had learned how to leverage their followers for linking purposes. Recently however, Twitter is rife with people who can show you how to build followers and then use them to make money, and as a result, unless you already have a good follower base, most of the people that start to follow you (blind followers, or 'bought' followers) are people who want YOU to follow THEM so they can use you to boost their profits.
The biggest problem with the TTM however, comes from Twitter itself, and their constantly upgraded anti-spam systems. Any one person who's followers increase rapidly, or who's follower/following ration is skewed, will find themselves with their account frozen for a period of time, and anyone trying to access your profile, or send you a message will be told that your account has been frozen for spam-like activities. There goes your credibility.

The reason I know all this, is that a simple Google search put me in touch with a number of people who had purchased the product, and were willing to speak openly about it. One very generous person was even willing to point me towards the programs that Bill uses in his system.
This is interesting: Not one piece of information in the TTM is new, or unavailable for free. Every thing taught in the TTM training videos can be found FOR FREE on Google and Twitter itself. The TTM charges for free information, and can only justify the cost through the 'convenience' or having all the information in one place, and have someone run through it for you.
The product has not been updated since launch, and relies on online programs that no longer function in the way described by Bill in his training videos.

So, recapping: Do not purchase the Twitter Traffic Machine. Too many people are using it already, and the training in the videos is out of date. And you can find all the information free anyway.

I feel the need to point out that, like many MANY others, I could have expounded on the implied benefits of the TTM and used my recommendation to bring in my own affiliate profits. The reason I haven't is because I don't believe anyone should be talked into paying for an obsolete product.
I can't spare $25, so I don't expect anyone else to throw it away on useless stuff.

Debunking all online gambling promises

Anyone who has ever run a google search or "make money fast" or "make $xxx in xx days/hours" or any similar search, will have come across "Cash Professor", "Underdog Wealth Systems" or any number of online gambling services, ebooks, communities and gurus who promise that you can make up to $1000 an hour if you use their system.

It ain't true.

Each system I've looked at (and my eyes are all dry and scratchy because I've been staring at a computer screen for far too long) relies on the idea that the law of averages will eventually work in your favor. This is just plain weird. If the law of averages were perfect, the best you'd be is break even on any given day.
Lets look at systems that use roulette first of all.
On each spin, the chance of the ball landing on either red of black is exactly 50-50 (ignoring the 0 or 00 spaces). If the ball lands on three red spaces in a row, the chances of the next number being black is still 50-50. No single spin is affected by the previous spins, nor are they affected by any future spins.
Theoretically, it is possible to continue to spin and always land on a red number, given the probability of each spin. Just like flipping a coin, heads or tails has the same probability of being the result every single time.

But in fairness I will not argue my point on theory and mathematics alone. I went and spent three hours in an online casino play (no money involved) roulette to prove my theory. The result, after one thousand, two hundred and seven spins was pretty clear. I started with $1000 'play' money, and ended up with $974. Not even break even. And three hours gone from my day. Good thing it was well after business hours, and there were few other things I could have been doing that would have made any money.

On to blackjack. The system: hit to 17. Just like the casino itself.
The theory: The casino makes money hitting to 17, so so should we.
I agree, in theory it should be possible to hit to 17 and earn money. However, the draw of cards means that the number of times you bust or are beaten by the dealer, will roughly equal the number of times you win.
Again, as with roulette, I entered an online casino and played with fake money. No risk, no payout.

The result, after six hundred and nine hands of blackjack, I was up $11.00. And down two hours of my time. Now while I was up at the end of my self imposed time limit, I don't think $5.50 an hour is worth it. Especially considering the minimum amount for a payout in most casinos is greater than $100, and even then, most casinos only have one free payout a month.

So, while it isn't possible to earn a living income in an online casino (through these systems), they do provide a safe and easy way to gamble for entertainment. I would like to stress the "for entertainment" part... there is nothing more dangerous than relying on chance outcomes for revenue and/or a living.

The casino I used for these tests was Bodog Casino, because it looked the most visually appealing, appeared to have the best support network and allowed me to play 'download free' (I have a Mac) and play real-time games without a deposit. So if you want to test any gambling theory yourself, head over to Bodog Casino and play with fake money. Never Assume any theory or system is safe to trial with real cash.

Sorry world, short update with much to follow!

Well its been a few days since I last let you all know how its going... I've been insanely busy with various ventures and the blog kind of slipped slowly towards the 'low priority' side of things. But to make up for it, I do have a whole heap of information for you all... various products I've looked at, and systems that are available.

In the real world, given the weather here (winter, wet, cold, nasty), I decided to head out into the farming areas and try my luck at finding some manual labor work. Good news: I had four days work on a vineyard, and I might be able to get more work starting Wednesday. Bad news: I have blisters all over the palms of my hands (not on my fingers thankfully), and loads of other people are also starting to figure out that there is some work out there. It comes down to how cheaply your willing to work.

In other news; happy birthday to my Nan, 85 today!!
Congratulations to Narrell and John on their 30th Anniversary!

Day two was a blow-out in the real world

I spent today pounding the pavement, resume in hand, asking every single business if there were any openings or who I needed to talk to to find out about possible openings. I distributed fifty copies of my resume to various businesses (that's all I had with me) and filled out I don't know how many application forms. 

And when I got home and checked my email... Thirty-Nine rejection notices. 

It doesn't get more disheartening than that really. I don't know where my next rent payments coming from, and I'm already slipping behind on my bills. 

The only thing of value I have that I can sell is my cello, and I know that unless I can wait months and months for the right customer, I'll never get what its worth. ($13,000 at the last insurance valuation) If anyone wants to buy my cello, let me know asap!!

I don't have a car (public transport is faster, safer and cheaper where I live).

I don't have a TV (my housemate owns that)

I can't sell my computer, its just too important to what I do, and if the internet fairies are nice, could help me make money.

I don't have a degree because I left school to help my Dad with bills (big family)

I don't have any special skills, and I don't have capital to use to start a venture properly.

I don't qualify for benefits, and even if I did there'd be an eight week waiting period because I've never been on benefits before. 

What do I have? 

More determination to stay solvent and safe than most people have. I will make a living in my city, and I will be good at it. 

I will pay rent next week, no matter what happens. 

I will maintain my self respect, even if I leave my pride at home. 

I will. Because failure is out of the question.

Day two update

It is now day two of trying really hard to stay solvent and Google hasn't indexed my blog yet, so I'm wondering how long that will take. I see indexing being pretty vital for traffic, as I want fresh traffic all the time, as well as recurring traffic. Fresh traffic is important because people who visit my site all the time are going to ignore the ads by habit, where new visitors are more likely to click an ad.

So here's hoping Google indexes me soon... really hoping...

Earning Money Blogging

Ok, so I went out and found loads of information on logging for money. Loads and loads and loads. And most of it is pretty useless. 

Blogging for money comes down to TWO elements

1. Ad revenue

2. Affiliate links

Now lets take a closer look at them individually.

1. Ad Revenue

This is pretty simple - you put ads on your blog or web page (or you get someone else to, Adsense, for example), and each time someone clicks the ad, you get a small payment. 

See? Simple.

BUT! You need to get a fair few clicks to generate any real earnings.

Say, 10 percent of visitors to your site click an ad, and you get $0.10 per click. To earn $100 you need TEN THOUSAND hits to your site. 

So, to earn ad revenue, you need Traffic. As an added bonus, the more traffic you get, the more you get paid per click, so that $100 in my example would be much, much easier to reach. Advertisers like busy blogs, so they'll pay more. 

Advertisers also like blogs that are well liked by search engines, and to be liked by search engines you need traffic, and you need to always be loading fresh, relevant, content constantly to maintain your ad revenue. 

Recapping: To get and maintain decent ad revenue, you need high traffic levels and fresh, relevant content all the time. 

Moving on;

2. Affiliate Links

Also pretty simple: Earn money by selling other people's products. 

This will give you a much higher return per purchase than ad revenue, simply because you get a percentage of the purchase price. For example, if you direct a customer to a product that costs $80, you might get 40 percent of the cost, giving you $32.00.

Sounds pretty cool. 

BUT! You need more Traffic!

Just like above, if 10% of people click on a link, its "safe" to assume 10% of those people will purchase the product. So for ONE MEASLY sale, you need one hundred thousand people to visit your site. (Unless you are really, really awesome at selling other people's products and can get a higher conversion rate).

Doesn't sound so awesome right now, but in the end the higher your traffic, the higher your click through rate, and thus the more money you get. 

Selling other people's stuff takes effort, good copy writing and really, really good promotion skills. Mad skillz you could say. 

You also need a fantastic affiliate network you can source products from. So far, Click Bank looks the best; the most products and the highest percentage of sales as well - up to a whopping 75% of the money from every sale will go directly to you once the purchase has been finalized. I'll have more on affiliate programs in later posts. 

Recapping: To earn money from affiliate links you need, an affiliate program, really awesome traffic, and the ability to sell stuff for other people.

Later posts (coming very soon) will cover

1. Traffic

2. Affiliate Marketing

3. Selling stuff for other peopl

4. Other amazing stuff.

And for those interested, I haven't made any money from this blog yet. But given that its been up for less than five hours, I'm not complaining. 

In the Beginning there was nought but bills and desperation

I'll begin by stating clearly: I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'M DOING.

This is pure, by-the-seat-of-my-pants, newbie, desperado stuff. I know there are other people out there like me, right now, trying to get by, make a little extra, or even find something that lets them be the lazy person they know that they are inside. And I know there will be people just like me again... and again... and again. 

This is the very beginning of my journey - I know people *can* make money from blogging, and  also know that not many people do make money from blogging, at least, not many people make a fortune anyway. So, blogging is where I'm going to start.

Task 1. Find out how people make money from blogs (other than ppc revenue)

Task 2. Verify the results of task 1. as accurately as possible.

Task 3. Find out if the lessons learned from tasks one and two will help me stay not-bankrupt. 

I have a google search list of sites to checkout and literature to read, so I'm off to do that now, and I'll be back with my results. I'll publish my very first lessons within three hours of now, so stay tuned.