Entrecard Top Drop 3
~ Make Money Online with EJ Cooksey

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Entrecard Top Drop 3 ~ Make Money Online with EJ Cooksey

At the time I wrote my first two reviews about my Top Ten Entrecard Droppers, the third blog on the list was Make Money Online With EJ Cooksey.

This is a first rate blog for simple-to-grasp tips and ideas on how you can increase the success of your activities for making money online. You’ll also find an array of internet marketing products, options for earning money from blogging itself, as well as affiliate program reviews and recommendations — and look out for the daily $3 download.

EJ is in the process of transferring the site to a new domain, on top of which she manages a number of other blogs, and home schools her children. I want whatever this lady is on, because she’s a human dynamo!

I’d like to take the opportunity to also mention another of EJ’s sites, Making Money Online with Articles, which skilfully presents practical information in a fashion that makes it easy to read and digest.

In turn, this means that you can get started quicker on writing your own articles for submission to article directories.

Writing by established webpreneurs also appears on the site, and these entries nicely complement EJ’s own posts.

Writing articles is quite simply one of the fastest methods to establish back links to your site, but we aren’t all budding Ernest Hemingways. So, if you could benefit from straightforward advice and guidance on drafting marketable articles, this is where you’ll learn plenty to get your scribbling juices flowing.

Reward Rebel Review

Popularity: 5% [?]

Entrecard Rides Again

Entrecard Rides Again

A couple of weeks ago, I started to write a review of each of my Top Ten Entrecard Droppers, and got as far as doing the first two, but then made a deliberate decision not to post about it again without allowing a respectable interval, in which other subject matter is aired.

Graphs and comparison charts have been designed, and many articles have been written about Entrecard, and I myself have posted about it on several occasions. Since signing up, there’s no doubt Reward Rebel has enjoyed considerably more traffic, and a proliferation of comments has mushroomed.

Entrecard delivers results in direct proportion to the amount of effort invested, and is a true friend to the new blogger. It’s a well-balanced service, and knowing the enthusiasm of its users, I’m fascinated to see what the future holds for its development.

It would be helpful if Entrecard allowed users to access full statistics instead of the summary that’s available. When planning advertising, it’s not at all helpful to refer to the click thru rates of your ten best advertising campaigns when one figure is the result for a solo ad, and another is the total for several, but Entrecard makes no distinction.

Since the data is collected anyway, I don’t understand why we can’t access it. Unless perhaps Entrecard intends to introduce a two-tier structure, with full accessibility being a benefit of a paid upgrade.

If you’d enjoy reading a more detailed article that covers every aspect of the Entrecard community, you’ll find the definitive review The Economy of Entrecard – Worth It or Worthless? at JT Pratt’s Blogging Mistakes, a site filled with useful information and helpful insights, as well as finding time to offer assistance and encouragement to the less experienced blogger.

John has also launched a new initiative enabling blog authors to contact one another with a view to exchanging content. This is a wonderful idea, and many have already signed up. You can read further details about this new venture at Content Exchange

Finally, today I came across an interesting little script to help speed up your Entrecard dropping experience. You can download the Entrecard Site Opener from TechiePortal.com a site harbouring many more unusual devices to make life a little simpler.

The adventure is gaining pace!

Reward Rebel

Popularity: 6% [?]

Making Money Online and Blogging 2

Making Money Online and Blogging 2

My last post appears to have hit a nerve in the blogging community, and overall the comments surprised me. The topic definitely warrants further discussion, so I’m devoting a second article to it.

When I became involved with online marketing, the first thing I did was create a squeeze page to start building a list, and then some sales pages, which I promoted with advertising, and a splash page on traffic exchanges.

At the time I was also involved in selling clothing through online auctions, and made full use of my Ebay ‘About Me’ page to market my digital product sales pages.

[A quick aside on the topic of peripheral marketing techniques — don’t forget to use your 404 and other error pages, otherwise it’s just wasted space. Pop up some ads or graphic marketing links on them. You have nothing to lose, but may very well gain an occasional Paypal payment notification that you wouldn’t otherwise have received.]

Anyhow, by this time, I was reading a lot about blogging and social networks, the whole Web 2.0 phenomenon. The logical next step was to start my own blog, and Reward Rebel came into existence. What I hadn’t really expected was how enjoyable it is, especially once you become involved in the blogging community as a whole. At the moment, I believe I’d continue blogging even if I were to quit internet marketing.

There are different types of blogger, from those who first start a blog, and then consider monetizing it, to the people whose blogs are genetically engineered to exist as a vehicle for making money online!

There is room for a comfortable middle ground, where an interesting blog containing enjoyable content, and helpful information and ideas, can also be actively marketing. The subscriber chooses to be included on a mailing list, and each communication should offer an ‘unsubscribe’ option. Personally, I don’t mail more frequently than once a week, and usually more like once a month, and many of my mails bear useful info and tips rather than promotions. Not every marketer is just trying to grab your money.

You know the old maxim, ‘the money is in the list’. It’s made to sound like some arcane magic elixir, if only we could get our hands on ‘the list’, we’d have everything our heart desires and be rich beyond our wildest dreams!

Yeah, well, not quite. The fabled list won’t make you rich by its existence alone, you do have to actually do something with it.

If you do choose to build a mailing list, avoid the mindset of treating your subscribers as though they are your property, or worse, your personal friends. They’re most definitely not. There are marketers who should know better, from whom I’ve received entirely inappropriate mailings.

Recently, I received one from quite a high profile name, an email about his daughter starting university soon, and how she needs all the help she can get with tuition fees. So he’s offering some digital product in return for helping her out. Global panhandling. This infuriates me, and I’m amazed that anyone has the bald-faced audacity to market at such a low-down, arse-sniffing level – and on such a massive scale! Although, I suppose if you’re going to do something, you may as well do it BIG!

For every blogger there will be a point of view, and it’s this element that makes it such a fun adventure, so enjoy yours!

Reward Rebel

Popularity: 8% [?]

Making Money Online and Blogging

Making Money Online and Blogging

Since I’ve been blogging, my whole approach when surfing sites has shifted perspective. When I’m visiting other blogs and websites, I find myself wondering what strategies for making money online are practised by this or that blog author.

• Do they have multiple niche marketing websites?
• Are they building a mailing list and promoting affiliate products to its subscribers?
• Have they developed or sourced their own product to promote?
• Do they use offline promotion tactics?
• How much do they advertise on other websites or offline?
• Do they submit articles to article directories to build back links?
• Are they, in fact, making money online at all?

Last year I signed-up to List Bandit, which provides a basic free service to the internet marketing sector, as well as offering a paid upgrade. I went for the upgrade, which entitles me to mail to 1500 prospective customers in internet marketing, 3 times a week. Perhaps I’m doing something wrong, but the best response I’ve had from a List Bandit mailing was equivalent to a 1% conversion rate. Hmmm, not gonna make my millions down this route.

But I have a confession to make… I no longer open emails sent from List Bandit members – yes, I do feel a bit guilty, but suspect that the majority of other bandits are doing, or not doing, the same, cos they sure aren’t opening my messages about making money online!

I did used to religiously open the mailings, because I figured that you receive what you give, and if I open mine, they’ll open theirs. But honestly, so many of them are a complete waste of my time.

Would-be internet marketers who think that they’ll succeed in making money online by sending an email containing an amateurish affiliate link (without cloaking or redirecting) and add a brief message along the lines of, “Go check this out, dude, it’s awesome!”.

In fairness I’m not giving credit where it’s due. These ‘promoters’ (I use the term in its loosest sense) succeed in accomplishing the near impossible feat of fitting several spelling mistakes into such a short sentence!

Sometimes I can get a bit lost up my own arse, and come off sounding a little elitist, I don’t mean to do this, I just don’t suffer fools gladly. I do possess a compassionate aspect to my nature, but I save it for those times when it’s really deserved.

So, you need to work smart and work hard at your blogging and internet marketing strategies, and you’ll succeed both at making money online, and enjoying your adventure.

Reward Rebel

Popularity: 4% [?]

Niche Marketing and Comics

Niche Narketing and Comics

Some of my readers may be wondering if I posted the last entry to the wrong blog! No, I know what I’m doing… hang on, no I don’t know what I’m doing half the time, but I have a fair inkling the other half.

My internet marketing adventure has taken me down a number of different avenues, as I research topics with a view to niche marketing. It occurred to me that if I include one or two stories from en route, it may spice up Reward Rebel’s recipe to suit a broader range of palettes.

It may also help people come up with some new ideas for niche marketing projects of their own.

Of course, on the other hand, it may totally put off my current readers, but if we don’t try something new, how can we ever know whether or not it would’ve been successful!

Enjoy the adventure.

Reward Rebel

Popularity: 7% [?]

Classic Cult Comic ‘2000AD’

Classic Cult Comic ‘2000AD’

In the 80s, when I really was a rebel, I squatted a basement apartment in North London. Unbeknown to me at the time, the former occupant had been a letterer for a British comic book, the cult classic ‘2000 AD’. When I moved in I found two huge piles of the comic, all consecutively numbered and going back for years. This was my introduction to ‘2000 AD’ and it was heavenly.

To have all these complete stories – richly inventive and extraordinarily imaginative tales like Slaine, Rogue Trooper, Judge Dredd, Ace Trucking, Strontium Dog. Characters from the pens of writers that became leaders of the genre – Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Pat Mills, and artists like Carlos Ezquerra and Simon Bisley.

No having to wait for the next issue to come out, I could continue the storyline immediately… time and time again. Instantly, I was hooked, and for some years I tried to never miss an issue. I always meant to buy two copies of each edition, to keep one and to read one, but I never managed to do it every time. If I was a bit skint, superfluous comics tended to get the chop.

My collection is now extremely dog-eared and nowhere near the desirable ‘mint condition’ demanded by fastidious collectors and dealers. (So that’s my fortune in comic books down the pan.) But you know, I think the comic’s creators would prefer it to be read and enjoyed! Not carefully slipped inside a plastic sleeve, never to see the light of day again until traded or sold to a new collector a few years down the line.

In the future, I’ll try to procure the occasional issue presently missing from my collection — to fill in the gaps and complete the tale. The complex stories and stunning artwork are precious, and timeless, I’d love to be able to keep them alive and accessible, so they can be enjoyed by others.

Perhaps they could have their own blog adventure? (Dang… copyright!)

Reward Rebel

Popularity: 4% [?]

I’m A Victim Of My Own Success

I’m A Victim Of My Own Success

Reward Rebel has kinda become a victim of its own success on Entrecard, and I’m reducing my card dropping activities until the cost of advertising on this blog has reduced to a more realistic level.

By 15 January, it had risen to 184ec and if I spend that much to advertise on a site, I expect a return of additional traffic click thrus that’s greater than I believe Reward Rebel is currently able to attract.

From reading blogs sporting the widget, I’m not alone in experiencing this ‘overpricing’ and wonder whether anyone is able to propose a solution. Perhaps they could set the advertising cost, but allow the blog author to reduce it if they so desire. Any thoughts?

My apologies for posting about ‘that’ network again, I’m trying to quit, honest.

Reward Rebel

Popularity: 7% [?]