Still a Great Site!

Pay Per Post, that is. In reading my previous post, it seems like I may have been putting down Pay Per Post. Actually, I still believe it is a great way to make money and I think it is unfortunate that Google has decided to target them simply for a legal advertising scheme - something Google does themselves.
Pay Per Post is still a great way to make a decent advertising revenue - I just didn't want anyone upset if they signed up for Pay Per Post through me and found that their Page Rank went down because of it. I'm still going to be using Pay Per Post, at least while it helps the doubling level I'm currently at and I still endorse them as they have paid me on time twice now. $25.50 is nothing to scoff at with just two sponsored posts!

Flip

Pay Per Post Warning

I have learned something about Pay Per Post and can't in good conscience promote it without mentioning it here. It seems that Google has taken exception with what Pay Per Post does. I am still reading up on it, but since November 2007, Google has been actively trying to detect Pay Per Post (and other similar programs) posts on people's blogs. When they do detect this, they end up reducing the Google Page Rank of the blog. There seems to be two sides of the debate. The pro-Google people are saying that these paid posts are messing up the search engines because, they are trying to sort based on relevance, which has to do with how many and more importantly WHO is linking to you. If you have a high Google page rank and you are paid to link to someone who is essentially "irrelevant" (ie. low page rank), then their page rank will increase artificially. If enough people with high page ranks point to this site, then it will rise in the search engine rankings and they will have essentially paid thier way in, as opposed to 'earned' it normally with people linking to them because they have important and relevant information. It does make sense to protect their main product - a good search engine. The other side of the argument has people saying that Google is simply trying to kill the competition, calling them hypocrites because they, themselves sell ads on their site. I have checked my own Google Page Rank on the Double Challenge and indeed it has gone from 2 to a big fat, 0! This is not good. My new site, Money 2 A Million (also Page Rank 0) has never had a sponsored post, but apparently Google has even been just LOOKING for certain phrases on people's blogs like "Pay Per Post', which I did mention on the other site. I've edited my posts on that site to take these off, but I have no idea if the Google Page Rank of 0 over there is because it is a new site, or if it is because of mentioning Pay Per Post. I have no idea what to do now. Part of me wants to start the new blog AGAIN, but maybe I'm just being paranoid. Anyway, you have been warned about using Pay Per Post - it's too bad - I personally think their a great way to make a few bucks, but if you care about your Page Rank, you might want to stay away.

Flip

Pay Per Post Coming

My first $20 Pay Per Post payment should pay out tomorrow. I'll keep you all informed about if and when it hits my Paypal. And in case you're wondering why my Total Balance looks a bit high, read THIS!

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My money is growing!

Ok, only 11 cents of growth, but it feels so good to know that since I opened a bank account for my double project, my money is actually DOING something instead of just sitting in my sock drawer. Do you realise that if I get 11 cents every month for 757,576 years, I will have A MILLION DOLLARS! And that's not even counting compounding interest! I'm on my way!

Flip

Site Review: Zenni Optical

Need Glasses? Zennioptical.com sells stylish prescription single vision eyeglasses for as low as $8! My wife wears glasses. Usually we fork out hundreds for those darn things, but for $8 I am shopping at ZenniOptical from now on. How do they do it? The Secret to Zenni’s Low Prices is that they sell only their own manufactured frames direct to the customer, with no middlemen and virtually no advertising budget. They seem to have a good selection of frames, and lenses on their website, which is very easy to navigate with a standard cart/checkout system. Check it out..

14 days left

There's 14 days left until I get my two Pay Per Post payments. Once I get those, I'll officially move over to Money2aMillon. I could probably do it right away, but I don't want to take any chances of them saying that my blog has stagnated or anything like that. Remember, if you have any links to The Double Challenge, I would appreciate if you moved them over to the new site.

Flip

New Name and Home for The Double Challenge

I finally got the Money2aMillion site up and running. It turns out I was making it much more difficult than I had to be since there was a auto-wordpress install included in my domain hosting. I have much work to do on the template, etc. , but I really wanted to get my first post in as soon as possible because Pay Per Post makes you wait 30 days before you can apply. Now I SHOULD see the number of opportunities increase (hopefully a lot) since I no longer have a blogger blog. I'm still not sure why so many advertisers refuse to advertise on free blogs - I guess it probably has to do with staying power of the blog. If you're willing to spend money on actually getting your blog up and running, there is a bigger chance that this isn't a blog just created to simply make some money from advertising. In any case, I will definitely keep you informed as to whether or not my number of advertising opportunities go up with the new blog. I'll keep posting on here (as well as the new blog) until I get my payments from the two pay per post ads I did. That should be another two weeks or so. After that I will permanently migrate to the Money2aMillion site. If you have a link to the Double Challenge, I would appreciate if you moved it to Money2aMillion.com.

Shipping and Handling

I went to the post office today to figure out how much I should be charging for shipping and handling on the watches. I asked the guy what the most would be to ship anywhere in Canada and what the most would be to ship anywhere in the States. Unfortunately, they don't seem to be set up for that question. I had to pick somewhere so I picked Vancouver and L.A. But, perhaps the cost to a remote community would be more, what about Alert, Canada (the most northern settlement). How much is it to ship there? I think I'll just add a few bucks to what he quoted me just in case. Of course, you don't want to add too much or no one will buy from you due to high shipping costs. I'm hoping to set up the Ebay auction tomorrow or the next day.

Flip