This is not the place to make money online
Right away, as the title says, this is not about how to make money on the net, it is just my thoughts and an example of where not to go if you actually want to make a living online.
Last night I was taking my break from trying to make money on the internet and as usual, I browsed through my emails of RSS feeds from blogs I follow. I can’t even remember which blog it was I looked at, but I followed a link and then another link, as you do, and ended up at a post I just had to comment on. It was at a site called Citizen Sugar.
Now, as well as trying to make a living online, I am a bit of a political animal and the post I saw I just couldn’t leave without a comment as it touched a nerve. The trouble was, I had to join the hub site which Citizen Sugar belonged to in order to make a comment. That site was Team Sugar.
So, I made my comment and then decided to look around. This seemed like it just might be the kind of site where I could post a couple of links and if not get some backlinks, at least get a few people clicking through to an appropriate site of mine. I am always on the look out for new ways to make money online and getting some links from a PR6 site seemed like a good idea 
Hmmm, not that easy… The TOS stated ‘no links to third party sites’. I did notice though that some members had posted links to other blogs of theirs which were off site (and commercial) and no one had caught them out… yet.
The trouble was, I soon discovered that I had signed up to a site where I could waste an awful lot of time. And when you are trying to make some money online, that is not such a great idea!
So what is Team Sugar about?
Well, I could hardly believe what I was seeing. And the reason for this is that, despite the fact I had arrived on this site via a pretty controversial political link, an awful lot of the other stuff on site was purely about ‘girly things’ - the latest fashions, handbags, shoes; celebrities, pets… need I say more?
Now, I like having the money to buy nice clothes and I do like movies and all the rest of the pap out there. I can be as ‘girly’ as the rest when it suits me (as the second comment I made will confirm). Nevertheless, I actually began to feel a little embarassed about signing up there. But never mind, I had a little time to spare from trying to earn some cash…
So I set up my ‘Homepage‘. And yes, I know it is totally sad, and also unfinished. And I know the site is all about making money from the users and not about us earning some cash from blogging there…
But when I get time I just might go back and finish that homepage and even make a blog post. There must be some way to utilise this in my attempts to make a living on the net. Or is that just a feeble excuse?
This is not an endorsement of Team Sugar. It is certainly not the place to go if you want to make money online. And I have just noticed that the Adsense advert doesn’t think this post is about making money on the net either. Never mind. In the middle of blogging for bucks a girl does need the odd rest…
Zani,
This is actually a kicks ass post! It makes a lot of sense when you think about it. If I spend two hours a day reading and commenting well thought out remarks, I should reap the rewards of said efforts right?
I mean why write a 4 paragraph reply to something that doesn’t bother to credit you for your work. I think I actually write more on other people’s blogs than I do my own. In fact, my comments tend to be rather long… long enough to be a post on my own site so it’s really important that trackbacks are allowed.
I use AWstats a few times every day to track my traffic and determine if my comments attracted new visitors. If no dice, I might try again on the same blog just in case it was poor authoring on my part, but in general, it’s likely just a static site that I shouldn’t be spending a whole lot of time on contributing to.
Thanks again for the awesome post… I’m a new subscriber now.
Hi Piss Biscuit,
).
thanks for your comment.
This was actually a rather thrown together post though - one of my ‘zani thoughts’, rather than a real ‘how to make money online’ one, but I’m glad you liked it (even though my page at that site is rather embarassing
Yes, I also spend a lot of time (way too much time in fact) commenting on blogs because I like to write. I’m actually thinking of keeping a catalogue of my posts (not the one on your blog though…) you never know, they could come in handy for something as long as I change them a little.
The only thing you find with most Wordpress blogs (including this one at the moment - as the jury still seems to be out on whether to change it) is that comment links are ‘no follow’ by default, so you probably won’t get backlinks for posting - not from Google anyway), but you can still get some people linking back to your blog.
But to tell the truth, I don’t care that much about getting backlinks for this blog anyway, as it wasn’t set up to make me money.
There agaain, you never know…
Thanks for stopping by.
@Zania: There is no reason on earth to NOT use your comment on my blog
The fact is that between you and “Griz”, some important material items were brought up that I was not originally aware of. Does it make you comment bad? No way.
Yeh the backlinks issue with WordPress is sort of a bummer, and selling links is risky business in the eyes of the Googlemiester.
I guess the reality is that if you have visitors, subscribers, and contributors, Google’s indexing of your site is really not as important. Even if you are trying to make money online. To me, the one of the only reasons to get trackbacks is for site appraisals should you be looking to sell eventually… which is not the case with my blog.
I guess my point is that as long as you have a growing visitor base - readership, then it really shouldn’t matter if Google likes you more than the next guy. My concern for blogs though is when I insert a trackback to something important or relivant, and the blog I commetned on doesn’t accept links, it keeps other readers from following it back to my blog… hence, waste of time!
I’ve subscribed, now so I’ll be following you as well!Hope to see you soon…