How to Make Money Online
If you do any kind of Internet search (using any search engine) and search for the phrase "make money online", you'll pull up a huge list of blogs, advertising agencies and other kinds of websites. What most of them have in common is that they parrot information coming from one or two authority sources. They won't identify the sources, even if they know what the sources are. That's because they want you to think that THEY ARE the source. I'm deviating from that norm by pointing out some sources, instead of parroting yet again.
Gaming Google
Google is the most popular search engine on the planet right now. It's no secret that blackhatters have been gaming Google for about as long as it has existed. The problem is that they can, and they do, get caught. Vic of Blogger Unleashed is a former blackhatter who's giving away all the secrets for free. Don't be surprised if you see other bloggers parroting his information without identifying him as the source.
I have no idea if Vic has any other websites or blogs that are still used in a blackhat fashion, but Blogger Unleashed isn't one of them. That blog exists for one reason: To tell YOU the truth about how to make money online without getting slapped around by Google.
If you can get past how many times he drops the "F-Bomb" in a single article, you'll learn more secrets in ONE DAY from his blog than you'll learn from a so-called "A-Lister" in a year. I recommend ignoring the colorful metaphors and head straight for the meat of what he's telling you. It's quite tasty.
Guilty By Association
Until BloggingZoom came along, I had no idea who "Vic" was. In fact, I didn't even know BloggingZoom existed until I read about it somewhere, probably at Court's Internet Marketing School. While I haven't dug deep enough into it to find out, I'm pretty sure that Court is a co-founder.
Another blogger that Vic has a tendency to associate with on a regular basis is Grizzly at How to Make Money Online for Beginners. Don't let the blog fool you — Grizzly will make more money using a free "blogspot" domain in a year than I ever will, no matter how long I have this blog.
Sponsored Posts
It's no secret that Google targeted blogs that used PayPerPost to write sponsored posts, including mine. Why wouldn't they? We disclosed and we wrote them in a way that was transparently obvious to anyone including Google. The problem is that the paid links were against Google's terms of service — terms that most bloggers didn't know or care about until after their PageRanks got slapped down to ZERO.
Google had the right idea, but the way they implemented it and enforced it was all wrong. In fact, it was so wrong that a lot of bloggers wrote scathing articles about Google. I wrote about it, but I really didn't go that far with it. There's a huge list of people who did (and still are).
Mike at TwentySteps recently came up with "Paid Links – The Solution". While you might be able to get away with something like this, I think it would be a temporary solution at best. Google would still figure it out eventually. The interesting part about his article is that it drew the attention of Ted Murphy of IZEA but not Matt Cutts, the enforcer of Google's policies on paid links.
In the past, I wrote about sponsored post ethics. I'm telling you right now, sponsored post ethics be damned! If you don't want to get bitch-slapped by Google, you have to do one of two things: Either stop writing sponsored posts or write sponsored posts in such a way that they look like all the rest of the articles you write, without making any kind of disclosure. I chose the first option, but then how to make money online has been nothing more than an experiment for me.
It's all about the traffic, stupid!
I'm sorry, but I'm not calling you stupid. If you don't pay attention to traffic, however, then I'll be happy to call you stupid. The key to learning how to make money online is to learn how to drive traffic to your website. Affiliate programs and programs like Google AdSense will not make you very much money at all unless you receive a lot of traffic.
Despite what you may have read (even on this blog), social websites like BloggingZoom, Digg, StumbleUpon, and others are not about directly driving traffic to your website. That's what some of them want you to think, but I assure you it's not. It's all about getting your website ranked high in the search engines, particularly Google, while making them a boatload of money (well, at least most of them).
If you get your website (blog or otherwise) stumbled, dugg or zoomed, you'll get traffic and that much is guaranteed. It's a temporary traffic spike, however, and it doesn't last unless it keeps happening day after day. The important part is that your pages will move higher up in the search engines and draw more search traffic. Search traffic is the traffic you want if you want to make money online.
Final Thoughts
I wrote this article as an experiment. I'm looking for a particular type of traffic. If you read the whole thing, I mean actually read it and not skimmed it, you'll know exactly what kind of traffic I'm talking about. I'm not too concerned if I made some grammatical mistakes here and there because that's not what this article is about.
Similar Posts:
Hi R.T.
Thanks for the plug and I wish you all the best in the new year. It appears you want to "make money online" (ha) and I think the fact that you have found Vic will prove to be a godsend in your quest. He is about as good as it gets.
Thanks again RT.
Griz
Grizzly's last blog post..Happy Holidays Everyone
Damn, you're fast!
Out of curiosity, I did a quick search for the phrase and was very amused by the sheer volume of people trying to get to #1 with that phrase. I had my son (22) standing next to me and said, "watch this" and I started typing. 20 minutes later, I hit publish. In a few days, I'll check to see what kind of traffic I'm getting from it. If my assumptions are correct, I will see almost an increase of, oh, almost nothing.
Well it has only taken me a mere 365 days to make it to page 2 on Google.com for "make money online " and a measly 7000 or so back links – nothing to it!
Grizzly's last blog post..Happy Holidays Everyone
LMAO!
I can't wait to see your results. I zoomed. Best of luck.
Stevo's last blog post..police, pants, and perilous perceptions
Hi RT,
Just from reading your post I feel my bank account swelling already.
I'll stumble this one for you to see what happens.
Frank C's last blog post..Happy New Year and a New Direction for OpTempo
Just remember to give it Motrin or something to keep it from swelling too much. That inflammation thing can really hurt.
Keywords in the title, in the first sentence, and in the last.
Repeat the keywords in the whole post, and make sure to put emphasis (bolder).
I've read the lessons, too.
I believe we're reading the same heaven-sent blogs. 
Happy New Year, RT, and may you have a prosperous 2008.
-Saedel
Saedel's last blog post..Time to Reflect
Lessons? What lessons? You mean there's a place that'll teach you all this stuff? Hehehe
BloggerUnleashed is a great site. I've been subscribed the feed for a few days now and that site is a lot better than John Chow or one of those other don't tell nothing bloggers
No Nonsense's last blog post..I’ve Been Tagged
You mean you actually read John Chow?
I sure do! Its one of the funniest reads on the net!
MrCorey's last blog post..Neither Rain nor Sleet nor Snow?.
I've read a lot of the things you mentioned here so I get what your saying. I think ranking for that term will take you a while.
Do you think I expect to rank for the term? No way! It's just an experiment to see how long it takes to get it to the bottom.
Nothing wrong with the grammar in that post, was their?
I need to read some Vic gems, I think.
Happy New Year btw, have a good one.
Ed's last blog post..Thread: rw unique entry id 530 page11. Post by Linda
You too, Ed!
i like to earn more money also coz everything is expensive now.
Hazel's last blog post..New Discovery.
I hope you do. We all need a little extra now and then.
Well done, my friend, well done indeed. Traffic jam forthcoming!
Doug Robertson's last blog post..Papal Bull
Nope, no traffic jam here. I don't really want one.
I just checked Google.
"make money online" ranks at 856
"how to make money online" ranks at 127
Good luck buddy please keep us up to date who is going I wish I had more time but sometimes I can get to all you folks blogs.
To your success
Vic's last blog post..BookMarkingDemon Tips
Thanks for stopping by, Vic. I didn't expect you'd have the time to, so I wasn't looking for it.
Success? If I can get out of bed, I'm successful. Anything else is gravy.
[...] BZ submissions and I came upon a test case that one our friends Richard is doing the post is called How to Make Money Online now I read it and left a comment: Vic on January 3rd, 2008 at 11:47 [...]
I just 'found' Vic today. Pretty interesting stuff and seems to have some great content… definitely subscribing
Gary R. Hess's last blog post..First Link Love of 2008
Vic is certainly an interesting read, that's for sure. Thanks for pointing him in my direction, RT, as well as linking to me in the post.
Matt hasn't responded but since he's on vacation I thought I'd let him off. However he'd better respond soon or I could find myself back in Photoshop again
Mike's last blog post..The Obligatory Round Up Post
RT,
Great find. I read a couple of posts from Blogger Unleashed and already added it to my GReader folder – Make Money.
As you mentioned, making money with my blog is still an experimentation for me!
K-IntheHouse's last blog post..Watermark Your Images Online – PicMarkr
[...] Vortex – How to Make Money Online What most of them have in common is that they parrot information coming from one or two authority [...]
Agreed the last part when you say search engine traffic is far away better than other social network based traffic. But it is better than none ,right?
Well, yeah, any kind of traffic is better than no traffic. Once you get that traffic, though, try to make it pay off in search engine traffic.
Vic's, Court's and Grizzly's tips are pretty informative. This is a little off topic, but just how much is "a whole lot of coffee"?
Tim's last blog post..Discovery Ridge in Calgary
Well, I drink more coffee than what's considered healthy. Especially when I'm doing a lot of writing. I'd say a pot or two a day.
Good post and got me smiling for a while, traffic-wise. I'll be checking your progress
"how to make money online" was 127 now 26
"make money online" was 856 now 259
Have seen bloggerunleashed before, but never really spend any time on it. Will have a better look into his site now.
John Cow's last blog post..God-Looking Websites
I once thought about targeting that keyword…until I started researching it
Seems all the A-Listers are fighting over it!
I'll take the road less traveled!
Ron
Ronald Lupaz's last blog post..Is Ronaldo Lupaz the Next William Huang?
Richard,
New to your blog and already I'm finding some GREAT "useable" info and resources here.
The beauty of marketing on the Net is that as long as one is willing to be flexible and keep up with the ever changing landscape, one can make money online.
Thanx!
Rick Wilson
Rick Wilson's last blog post..Valentines Day PLR Product Reviews Package
That, I think, is the key — "the ever changing landscape". We either change with it or get left behind.
Due to spamming, comments for this post are now closed.