Make Money Online With A 13-Year Old

Archive for the ‘Experiments’ Category

This Is Humiliating.

By Carl On July 1, 2009 7 Comments

If you're new here, you really should subscribe to my blog's Full RSS feed for FREE! You don't want to miss informative posts! Thanks!

A week ago, I asked you to critique me for a chance to win a copy of my Ultimate Blogging Theme and my upcoming Google optimization book.

I got tons of really constructive ones, I appreciate those people who participated.

People pay for critiques

Last year I took a public speaking class to prepare for a 1 hour talk at Joel Christopher’s seminar. Because honestly, I’m an introvert, well I was an introvert :-)

The first few days were not hard, they were just speaking exercises, intonations and other stuff. But as we progress, it gets more “heart pounding”.

Seriously, it took the crap out of us.

Around the 2nd week of the class, we started to do VTR’s. They’d ask us impromptu on stage about all sorts of questions and record it with a video cam. Then they’ll “humiliate” (sort of) us when they play it right after we speak and critique it. It’s VERY awkward and I always think of myself looking funny.

We were already there, we paid for it. So no turning back now.

But that wasn’t all, the 3rd week, we were asked impromptu questions AND critiqued on stage! It sucks big time. One of my classmates got so shaky that she crumpled her notes while speaking!

Those moments changed us. We did it the 2nd, 3rd and 4th time and as we go on, we felt more comfortable on stage and because of those critiques, we were able to get rid of our bad habits in a flash. Like literally.

Totally sweet.

It takes a lot of guts

Getting critiqued takes a lot of guts. Actually, I expected more “hardcore” critiques from you but I appreciate you guys being constructive :-)

Now for the winnerSSS

Click here to continue reading

Turn The Tables On Me

By Carl On June 25, 2009 16 Comments

I’m feeling of doing something “radical” today…

I’m gonna open up the comment section and let you “critique” me.

But to add a little twist, the person who makes the best critique wins a copy of my Ultimate Blogging Theme ($97) and my soon to be released Google optimization book, Feed Kid Google ($47).

I’ve got to tell you, you’ve got tons of stuff to critique about me…

• My writing – I easily switch plural and singular stuff
• The design – The UBT is tested, but not perfect. Testing just keeps going on and on.
• Your first impression – This one I can’t test all the time. I’ve already asked almost all of my friends about it and I’m still tweaking the blog up to now so I’ll appreciate your comment about the first impression.
• How I portray myself – If they say Carl Ocab, what pops out of your mind? What do you think are my qualities?
• Tons more, those are just the stuff that came to my mind first.

I’m not really like the “master” of blogging or something, heck I’m not even close to that so I’ll really appreciate your comments.

P.S. Winners will be hand picked :-)

Bum Marketing, Does It Still Work?

By Carl On April 5, 2008 81 Comments

On the first months of my internet venture, I’ve heard tons of ways to make money online. For a start, you have those “Get paid to” sites. Pretty tempting for a 13-year old back then, but I never tried one. You have eBay and a whole lotta other ways. But what have most intrigued me is this – bum marketing.

For the next months, I will be doing a live experiment, testing if bum marketing still works.

What is bum marketing?

Easy as pie. You write an article related to the product that you will be promoting as an affiliate then submit it to Ezinearticles.com. Do the process hundred times. Wait for the search engines to rank you article.

Higher rankings = more traffic to your article = more clicks to your affiliate link = more affiliate sales.

Listen. Here’s the secret to bum marketing success… domination. Dominate every search term for the product.

Let’ say you will be promoting a fishing tip product. To dominate the niche of your product, try hitting long tail keywords e.g. trout fishing, Alaska salmon fishing, Florida fishing, etc. and write one article for every keyphrase.

Why bum marketing?

I’ll skip the long paragraphs and bull point it out ;-)

• No computer skills required
• You can start with a low budget
• You can start right now
• Money on snowball effect

Why not bum marketing?

• Too many articles to write
• You depend too much for search engine traffic

The solution

• Too many articles to write – If you don’t have the money, you’ll have to pay time to get money. If you don’t have the time, you’ll have to pay money to get time. Now I have the money, I don’t have to write the articles – I ordered my first batch of 15 articles from one of my writers.
• You depend too much for search engine traffic – Then why not add a dash of web 2.0? For this case study, I will be using Social Poster to bookmark the articles I’ve submitted to Ezinearticles.com. I will also make a couple of Squidoo.com and Hubpages.com pages.

What I’ve done as of now

If you want to do the same and test it for yourself – or do it for the profits, here are the things that I have done at the moment.

1. Looked for a product to promote over at PayDotCom (Clickbank alternative) with a good conversion rate and a reasonable price
2. Bought a domain name because Ezinearticles.com don’t allow direct affiliate links – $7.15 (with coupon price from godaddy)
3. Bought 15 articles related to the product I will be promoting – $45
4. Set upped a campaign on my autoresponder (I am currently with GetResponse) to capture leads for long term traffic – $17.95
5. Bought a private label product to give people an initiative to sign up to my list – $3
6. Hosted (I recommend Media Temple) my squeeze page where I will drive my traffic to – $20
7. Did a keyword research via Aaron Wall’s keyword suggestion tool and targeted the keyphrases with around 100-300 overall daily search to compete with less competition
8. Submitted an article to Ezinearticles.com
9. Bookmarked my article using Social Poster
10. Made a Squidoo.com and Hubpages.com page for my article

With that kind of set up, it would cost you less than a hundred dollars to start.

I did my best to cut the cost here for everyone to take play. You can eliminate some expenses like the buying of articles by writing ones on your own and probably the hosting if you’ve got your own host.

By the way, if you’re wondering what my squeeze page looks like, you can download a copy of it via this link.

What do YOU think?

Now, now, I’m not a bum marketer on any perspective. I just read a couple of guides here and there for this case study, added some of my ideas and a dash of today’s new traffic tactics.

I’m expecting a positive result from this experiment as the principles are quite promising.

How about you? What do you think of the experiment? Will I earn my money back? Is there anything you would like to add?

7 Steps To Media Fame – Part 2

By DeanHunt On December 27, 2007 2 Comments

Today we are going to complete our 7 Steps to Media Fame experiment. This is a continuation from part one, so if you didn’t read part one, and would like to get your website, blog, or business mentioned in the national media… for FREE, then go and read part one first.

STEP FOUR – Write an Overview

You now should have some email replies, some will be positive and some will be negative. It is likely that they will want an overview from you.

Warning: Journalists will try to use a more complex word than “overview”, I don’t know why they do this, perhaps to seem more intelligent, but expect to be asked for:

• A Capsualization
• An Outline
• A Précis
• A Synopsis

I was personally asked for a 200 word Précis. Just remember, they want a general overview of the story.

Your goal here is to write an overview that is interesting, easy to understand, fairly well written, and has a unique aspect to it.

Note: Don’t worry about grammatical errors, but ask a friend or family member to proof read it before you send it, and use an online spell checker.

Focus on keeping it simple, and remember to include your unique angle.

STEP FIVE – Get More Coffee

They have your overview now, so grab another coffee, and perhaps an Xbox360 controller as well (contact me if you want to know my Xbox Gamertag) and wait again.

They will reply and either say:

1. “We like it, can you please send me/write the full story and then I will speak with the editor and try and get it published.”
2. “We don’t like it!”

If they say they don’t like it, don’t worry! There are plenty more fish in the sea, and don’t forget, there are millions of magazines as well as newspapers.

If they say they like it, then you will have to move to Step Six:

STEP SIX – Writing the full story

If you have reached this stage then give yourself a big pat on the back. You are close to becoming famous in your industry, and getting tens of thousands of dollars worth of publicity for FREE.

Note: If you are a terrible writer then you could hire one instead, or perhaps a friend could help you.

Your goal here is to write your full story, aim for around 500 words, and remember to include as many of these as possible:

• WHO
• WHAT
• WHERE
• WHEN
• WHY

Read other stories and copy their formatting style. Test your ideas and then have it proof read once you are finished.

It is also best to include your contact information at the bottom, and send 2 or 3 photos as well.

TIP: They want high quality photos, so don’t send them a crappy .GIF file. Use the originals, and in the highest possible quality.

STEP SEVEN – Making a Deal

Most newspapers are NOT going to pay you for your story. But remember, you are getting a lot of free publicity, so don’t worry.

Your goal is to try and mention your site or product without it sounding like a promotion.

My Example

I got a mention of DeanHunt.com by talking about my personal blog. It was logical to give the URL, but I didn’t promote it by saying stuff like “Best Buzz Marketing Site on the Net.”

I simply slipped it gently into the conversation.

Remember: Editors will remove anything that sounds like a promo-piece.

Summary

There we have it. Seven steps you can start using today to get yourself into national newspapers.

Since my article was published I have had over 80 emails from readers. I am meeting with people in Madrid this weekend, and I have had two job offers.

You probably won’t be the next Paris Hilton of the media, but you can get thousands of dollars of publicity for yourself, your site and your business.

I welcome your questions and feedback here at Carl Ocab.

From Dean Hunt – a Newly Published Writer ;)

Christmas Goodies from Dean

The Web Traffic Orgasm FREE marketing Case Studies, Free Buzz Experiments and Free Media Tricks are still available. Download them today!

Also, if you are looking for a little more cash for the holidays, have you considered selling one of your websites or blogs?

I welcome your feedback.

Have a happy holidays and a hazy New Year ;)

Dean Hunt

7 Steps To Media Fame – Part 1

By DeanHunt On December 11, 2007 11 Comments

Hello, My name is Dean Hunt and I recently had an article about my life published in the UK’s largest, quality newspaper (The Telegraph – 900,000 copies sold per day). Carl asked me to show his readers how they can achieve national fame and a huge boost in web traffic, so I will be showing you the EXACT 7 steps I used to get this huge, FREE media attention.

STEP ONE – Brainstorm

Ok, you want a story in a national newspaper or magazine… but what story?

It would be nice to just have our web address in big writing on the front page, but the world doesn’t work like that. We need to find news worthy story.

At this point we will have to brainstorm, so grab a pad and pen and do the following:

1. Decide what you want to promote – is it your website, your blog, yourself, your new product etc?
2. Go to PRweb.com and Google.com and type in related keywords
3. Look for news stories that are in this industry and see what types of stories they are. Also, look for ideas.
4. Look for a UNIQUE angle

I wrote UNIQUE in large writing for a reason. It is essential you find something unique, something different that will help you stand out from the crowd.

My Example

In my article I am promoting my name, working online, and working from home. But I know that newspapers don’t like people promoting “Make Money Online” related things… so what did I do?

I focused the article on Expats and sent it to the “expat editor”. I moved from the UK to Spain three years ago, so I told a story about my new life, and included a mention of my blog.

My article still promotes me, my blog and my brand. I just disguised the promotion beneath the expat related story.

STEP TWO – Just Ask!

This sounds simple, but remember this… newspapers and magazines NEED stories. So they are keen to hear any stories you may have. Don’t be afraid to ask them, if you do not ask then you cannot get results.

I visited a few newspapers online and made a note of the contact email addresses. Then, I compiled an email like this:

“Dear editor,

My name is Dean Hunt and I am writing because I have a story that I believe may be of great interest to your paper.

I am sure you hear this all the time, so I would be happy to send you an overview if you are interested?

Thanks for your time, I hope to hear from you soon.

Dean Hunt”

I know what you are thinking… “Dean, this is not a very detailed email”, you are correct! That is my trick.

The goal of your first email is to get a response. I do this by using curiosity. I sell the story without giving details, and I try not to make it sound spammy.

Art of Negotiations

If the editor replies to your email and asks you for more information, you will have the upper hand in the psychological aspect of a deal.

He is now essentially asking YOU, not the other way around.

Goal: Your first goal is to get a reply from the editor or journalist, don’t worry about anything else at this stage.

STEP THREE – Wait

You have done the hard work now, so grab a coffee, get in your most comfortable chair and wait.

Monitor your inbox and wait for the replies from the newspapers to arrive.

Part 2 Coming Soon

The final part of this tutorial will be published very soon.

In the meantime, you can get a free copy of this and all of my previous experiements 100% FREE here: Free Marketing PDF

Interesting Reading

Dean writes regular features at the following blogs:

Young Entrepreneurs
Street Lessons
Buy and Sell Websites

To Digg: Thanks For The Useless Traffic – Or As What Most People Think

By Carl On October 20, 2007 17 Comments

Yesterday I posted a rather staggering picture of a chart with an enormous spike. The article image wasn’t detailed enough because there’s only a sentence in there. Although some did get a clue about it, I bet you’re still curious.

Well I didn’t literally got dugg but I’m part of it. You see, Michael of Retire@21 emailed me a month ago asking for an interview. At first, I thought it was just another interview that gets posted and forgotten. But I was pretty surprised when Michael emailed me after posting the interview and at that time it got over 15+ diggs. With fingers crossed, I waited. After a few minutes, the diggs grew higher and higher and when it hit the 30+ mark it stopped.

I lost hope that time because I thought that digg only posts new stories, I didn’t knew that even a 2 hour old story still has the chance to get to the frontpage. I slept without knowing that our interview got in the frontpage. To my surprise Mike emailed me in the morning (night at his) saying it landed on the frontpage.

I got the crazy feeling with a fast heartbeat at that time! Hehe… Just to sum up the long story, I got overflowed with thousands of unique visitors from Mike’s site that resulted to that big spike.

Anyway, here are some of my thoughts about the whole thing:

I Hate Web 2.0 Traffic

• It’s Not Targeted – Digg’s community are mostly peers who love tech, gadgets and “I hate Microsoft”. They just click, check, leave a comment and get away. Heck the average time they stayed on the blog was 60 seconds. That’s a minute less than the normal visitors stay on my blog.
• All You Get Are Negative Comments – I don’t get diggers, all they do is criticize people. They concentrate on the bad stuff, just a single mistake you’ll get buried. And oh, did I tell you that they won’t even read, most of them just skim over the page and leave a negative comment.
• No Buying Power – This is probably the worst of them all. Yes, I can handle bad comments (or ignore them) and I know a way to monetize those untargeted traffic, but no buying power? I got over 200 clicks on one of my affiliate links but ridiculously got no sale.
• You Write For Your Server To Crash – I guess this is self explanatory.

I Love Web 2.0 Traffic

• You Strive For Perfection – Digg is a battleground for me, you get challenged by everyone even to your best intentions, and like what I said earlier, you get a whole truck of criticisms (most of them aren’t constructive at all!) if your article gets on the frontpage. But think of it as a helpful comment, don’t take it personally. Strive for perfection, be thorough on every article you submit.
• Backlinks! – Getting dugg by 200+ diggers is 200+ backlinks from their profiles, just give my name a search.
• Here Comes The Emails Again – On the day I sent the interview to Michael, I created an email capture page to my soon to be company Rich Kid Media. I mentioned it at the end of the interview because that was the only way to cash in through that. At that time I didn’t expect that the interview will get posted on Digg’s frontpage. Though I did expect some signups from that page but not a hundred of em! Yep, on that day I insanely got almost 100+ signups thru Rich Kid Media. Not bad?

Conclusion

I love web 2.0 even if the traffic is not that targeted, there are still possibilities to juice money out of the staggering traffic.

Yes, they hate ads, they hate CPC ads, but what if you make them think that it’s not an ad or something that you can make money with. Like giving away a free report? :twisted:

UPDATE: The title (mommy, can I cash my Google checks now?) of the digg story was from Dean of Deanhunt. Without it, it won’t get in the frontpage!