Sometimes I just don’t understand Google. After spending a few weeks proudly on the front page of result for “make money blogging”, I’ve now been relegated to the fifth page of results. Even more confusing, one of my other blogs, that actually has nothing to do with blogging, now ranks in the top 20 for the phrase.

I got on the front page for that term quite easily by just linking to my make money blogging page multiple times on this blog, my other blogs and anywhere else I could put a link. That’s really all there is to SERPs, but some terms are more competitive than others. I also noticed that I rank highly for certain terms that I have only linked to from this blog. Right there that proves the importance of internally linking your pages.

However, the day we fully understand Google will be the day the world implodes. We just have to keep doing what we’re doing. One good thing that Google has done is give my blogs Page Rank that can now be seen in the Google toolbar. What this means is that the blogs I’ve been trying to sell have an extra selling point.

What I’m doing right now is comparing the best offer for each of my unwanted blogs with the most amount of money I can make in selling links on them. If I can make more money selling links then, what they hey, I might as well just do that and leave the blogs to collect dust. I can always sell the content later on.

Initially I planned to use those blogs for writing masses of paid reviews, but the time needed to perform such a task is pretty vast.

Tags: Google by Angel
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After getting banned from Digg, I’ve now been banned from Pay Per Post, although it’s really my own fault. The problem with Pay Per Post is that you can’t add and remove blogs to your account as you please. Once you’ve added one blog, you have to make 10 posts before you can add another. It’s a silly rule really.

I signed up one of my blogs to Pay Per Post eons ago, but after an uproar from my readers about writing paid reviews, I decided to stop writing them on that particular blog. So what else could I do? I still wanted to use Pay Per Post, but couldn’t find a way to add another blog. So I set up another two accounts with different email addresses.

Both of the new accounts were approved and I wrote a post on each of the blogs, which also got approved. Technically, I could have got away with it. It then dawned on me that I would be paid for both accounts to the same Paypal address. So I contacted Pay Per Post and told them I was in a bit of a pickle, effectively coming clean. I said that I really didn’t know what else to do because they have no option to remove a blog from an account.

In the end, the lady who deals with “bad bloggers”, as she put it, mailed me back and said that she would ban two of my accounts but leave one open. Frustratingly, one of the accounts she banned was the one I use for referring other people, so I lost about 45 pending referrals in the process. I did ask to carry on using that account and just remove the blog, but for some reason that’s not possible.

So there you have it. You can open multiple accounts on Pay Per Post, but when it comes to payment, they’re likely to spot that you’re up to no good unless you have multiple Paypal accounts.

They should definitely look into getting rid of the 10-post rule and allowing users to add and remove their blogs.

Tags: Paid posting by Angel
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I was in Bangkok all weekend and was reminded of how much that city thrives on image. It’s really the same as the blogging world. Image is everything. In Bangkok, there are two types of people: there are those who have got it and there are those who act like they’ve got it. It’s not even about money – it’s about the image of wealth. If you’re a blogger who isn’t making stacks of cash yet, there is something to be learned from those Bangkokians who act like they’ve got it.

In Bangkok, it’s incredibly easy to present yourself as if you are a member of the high society, the elite. Fake designer labels can be picked up dirt cheap; there are numerous social gatherings with loose security you can show your face at; and people spend all of their money on expensive cars, phones and other such status symbols.

Even if they can barely afford to feed themselves, people in Bangkok spend obscene amounts of money on items that people will see and associate with wealth. It’s a fickle world, but when you think about it, as bloggers, we can do the same thing.

Instead of phones and cars, bloggers flaunt blog posts to show off their success. Just as wealth is perceived as good in Bangkok, so success is perceived as good in the blogosphere. This success usually comes down to how much money a blogger makes, but it can also be attributed to readers, RSS subscribers or just the ability to share useful information.

Image is everything

If you can pull it off like those people in Bangkok, convincing the online world that you are a success, then you give people a reason to read your blog. When I see a hot girl all wrapped up in designer threads with expensive-looking jewelry, I don’t think to question her status because she has an image. It’s the same with bloggers. Unless their claims are ludicrous, you don’t think to question their success.

You can often get away with presenting yourself in a favorable light because the vast majority of readers will not be keen on doing detective work to uncover the truth behind your image. The problem comes when you get so wrapped up in creating your image that you lose sight of what you’re doing. It’s like the people in Bangkok who spend their whole lives faking it: they stop putting time into actually making it.

Make the myth a reality

Sure, I could sit here every day and tell you I make $5,000 a month. I could convince you I’m an Internet guru, and if people started believing me then that would be half the job done. But to get the other half done – to actually make $5,000 a month – that’s the real challenge. What good does it do you to convince the world you’re rich if you don’t even have enough money to pay for your hosting?

I love Bangkok, but sometimes the fakeness of the city bores me. Being back in the big city, however, reminded me how easy it is to be held in high esteem by faking it. If your blog sucks and you have no readers, you don’t have to tell everyone that. Tell your readers you are the best, that they should read your blog – believe what you write and make it come true. Nobody wants to read a blogger who doesn’t believe in himself.

Tags: Tips and tricks by Angel
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