Thoughts on How to Make Money on the Net was set up primarily to air my views on what goes on in the Make Money Online blogging niche - good or bad. But most of all I like writing about enigmas; those who you have a very sneaky suspicion about, but cannot quite pin down.

And today I have another money making enigma to discuss: Aaron Abber from Full Tilt Blogging.

Full Tilt Blogging is not very old. It has been running since mid December 2007, but even then, didn’t really get going with regular posts until mid February 2008, when the emphasis changed from general ‘what is going on in the MMO niche’ to Aaron trying to teach his readers about ‘active marketing’. This, he argued was through getting readers to subscribe to your blog because:

“When you get people to subscribe you have the opportunity to remind them again and again not only to visit your site and view your wonderful content, but also to purchase products and services which pay you a commission.”

Sound familiar? Thought so.

You set yourself up as a ‘popular blogger’ and then make money off of your regular readers.

Admittedly, Aaron doesn’t only concentrate on making money from his regulars, he does consider search engine visitors important too and gives SEO tips and links to free tools which can help new internet marketers find good keywords.

However, when we get down to the nitty gritty of making the structure of your blog search engine friendly, the SEO tips you will find on Full Tilt Blogging are quite basic. It is true that the average new blogger would find them helpful, but I think their vagueness could also get unsuspecting bloggers into trouble. I’m thinking here particularly about the suggestion:

“Use your target keyword phrase in the first paragraph and scattered throughout the page, if possible placing it in “headline” tags.”

Which, if done incorrectly (ie; if the blogger assumes they can put keywords in the body of their post in h1 tags), could actually cause the blogger trouble with Google who could decide they are ’spamming’.

But vagueness aside, basically, Full Tilt Blogging, on first view, is a reasonable blog with quite a few tips for newbies on making money online (even if some of the ways to make a living are suspect). It began as an easy to read blog, easy enough to navigate too. It uses a clean, free Wordpress theme which works well for the intended purpose.

But lately FTB has become something else…

The vast majority of the posts are written like a web page advertising an ebook. The only thing missing is the red and yellow highlighting (on second thoughts, one entry does have large flashing red text in the middle…).

And I have to ask myself, exactly what is Aaron trying to do here?

And you know what it is? Aaron wants to build a community:

“Full Tilt Blogging is a community of people who support and encourage one another. Being a member of Full Tilt Blogging will allow you to find new friends who share your interests, visit and comment on your blog and encourage you to reach for your goals.”

Now, why would anyone want to join Aaron’s community when he has already told them that he is after subscibers for their money?

Because he is offering them something FREE. Access to ‘Aaron’s Mentoring Group’, where he will give you lessons that non members cannot have access to, and so he can:

“Let Me Help You Become a Millionaire FREE”

And all you have to do is… Sign the application form which says:

“I agree to tell at least 10 other people about FullTiltBlogging.com as well as make a post about it on my blog.” (emphasis mine)

Hmmm, why is this starting to sound like a pyramid scheme, or a ‘personality cult’, or even both?

Pyramid schemes are not good news for anyone wanting to make a living online. Someone sets them up, gets others to join ‘to make money’; those people have to get others to join up to make their money, and get commission from the sales of those who sign up with them… and so on. At the end of the day the only people making money are those at the top of the pyramid.

It’s rather like the ‘A list’ idea of making money from your affiliates and just as dangerous.

But Aaron says there is no money involved here… people do not have to pay to sign up to his ‘mentoring program’. He also says that he ‘respects people’s privacy’ on his email list…. doesn’t stop him sending them spam himself though…

Or is it just that Aaron wants to show how popular he is with his long list of subscribers? Even if he doesn’t convince them to part with their hard earned cash at a later date, those subscription figures could be used to convince the unwary that his blog is worth mega bucks…

It’s the requirement to ‘tell at least 10 other people’ that worries me the most. It reminds me of some religions or cults, where the ‘follower’ has to convert others ‘as a symbol of their faith’.

So does Aaron simply want disciples for whatever reason?

I had a look at the blogs belonging to some of Aaron’s members. They all follow an eerily similar pattern… large text with ‘important’ (ie, money making) bits in larger figures, often red and underlined for good measure.

Now, I’m not saying that this is wrong when it comes to marketing niche blogs and sites (sadly, it is often seen as ‘the only good way’), but pushing out blog clones on ‘make money online’ blogs will not get you many regular subscribers…. especially when you all have at least one advert for Full Tilt Blogging on your blog, either in that post you promised to do, or, for good measure, on a banner in the side bar too. And, as Aaron has been generous enough to let you post one of his articles on your blog too …Why should your readers stay with you when they are being told they can join a whole ‘community’ instead?

How did I find some of Aaron’s members? They posted comments supporting his mentoring program. Perhaps this is the only way they can find enough people to tell about it other than on the post they made on their blog (or perhaps not… I wonder how many forum posts this has generated?).

Have I signed up for Aaron’s ‘mentoring program’?

Definitely not.

It seems to me that the program will have a kind of value, in that Aaron has collected information from over the internet to turn into his own lessons. So, I guess if you would rather have everything in one place (with Aaron’s interpretation…) then you would find it useful.

Me? I would much rather find out for myself. Especially when belonging to this ‘community’ requires members to promote it as part of their free membership…

It will be interesting though, to see over the coming weeks how many more clones are produced which simply convert more disciples to Full Tilt Blogging.

Good scheme Aaron. I cannot say exactly what your intentions are at the end of the day, but I have my suspicions.

But as to belonging to your community, then please count me out. I never wanted to be a disciple.

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