You’ve seen them popping up all over the internet. You know, those blogs with the pictures of the big fancy cars and tell everyone how much money they make online? Hey, you’re on one right now, sort of. Ironically, it seems that these bloggers make most of their money online from their make money online blog where they tell people how they make money online by telling people how to make money online. Here are 28 signs of a “make money online blogger” as observed by me, starting now…
- There is a giant picture of a fancy car in the header.
- You get the impression they make so much money online they could actually afford one ore more of these cars.
- They promote make money online ebooks that tell you how to make money online by telling others how to make money online.
- They promote other “internet marketing” ebooks in general, which offer little or no useful information.
- Most of the time their blog doesn’t even talk about making money online.
- They have over 80 posts about fine dining.
- This fine food actually looks pretty disgusting, and greasy.
- In the comments, people actually say they think food looks delicious, and “makes me hungry”
- “Top commentators” say other things in comments to suck up, hopefully to get a link on their sidebar “Top commentators” list
- They really like 125×125 advertisements, and have at least 8 in a prominent location on their blog.
- Their blog is one out of 475 (at the moment) in Entrecard’s make money online category.
- They have a really annoying “stripe ad” that rests at the top of all pages on the site, which doesn’t go away when you click the “x” button.
- They have a really annoying “peel away ad” which promotes some other make money online product.
- They never made a dime online before starting their make money online blog.
- A large chunk of their online revenue is from selling affiliate products to other potential make money online bloggers.
- A large chunk of their revenue is from selling “unbiased reviews” to other make money online blogs.
- The rest of their online revenue is from ad sales on their make money online blog.
- They show off a picture of their biggest adsense check, presumably revenue derived from their make money online blog.
- They brag about their FeedBurner RSS subscribers.
- They have “RSS contests” with other make money online bloggers.
- They preach about SEO yet they don’t even rank for the keywords they’re trying to target themselves.
- Sometimes they get banned from Google for their questionable SEO tactics.
- If they do get banned from Google, hundreds of blogs talk about it
- Some actually take their place in the SERPs
- They make idiotic videos to get attention (any attention must be good attention, right?).
- Surprisingly, it actually works.
- Most make money online blogs regurgitate the exact same information about new “revolutionary” products and services.
- They put “dot Com” as part of their site title.
Okay, that’s 28 so far. In the true spirit of web 2.0 I’m going to let YOU, the internet people, come up with more. Truth is I just can’t think of anymore. Feel free to leave a comment with your tell-tale sign. Oh, and don’t forget to subscribe to the feed!
April 22nd, 2008 at 12:33 pm
I have a marketing blog and the only point I qualifed on was “They never made a dime online before starting their make money online blog”. What you are referring to are the johnchow copycat blogs. The best marketing blogs make their money from sources outside their blog. But the niche you painted such an amusing picture of does exist, and won’t be going away any time soon. Let them feed off each other, while those blogs that don’t follow the herd do their own thing.
April 22nd, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Thanks turnip. I wasn’t really trying to take a hit at marketing blogs in general, just those ones you described that do “follow the herd.” The post was meant to be lighthearted. Appreciate the comment.
Just to future readers: I have no grudges or ill feelings against any specific “make money online” person in particular. Everything on this post was meant to be humorous, so I hope noone takes it too seriously. =)
April 22nd, 2008 at 5:54 pm
My only qualifying trait would be dot com in my title, which was really picked as a tongue-in-cheek title … I have a cow and a tractor in my header, don’t sell ebooks or other “make money online” products and don’t bother with Adsense. I do like 125×125 ads in my sidebar though. I have made a lot of money online before I started my blog but agree with you that the only idea that most newbies can come up with when considering affiliate marketing is to copy the John Chow recipe thinking they will be able to duplicate his success. Kind of sad to see such a lack of originality and ideas.
April 24th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Interesting premise… Yes, originality sells, but I can also see where one man’s scraps are another man’s fortune.
My make money online site is really just an incubator for me to try things out and roll out what works to my other sites. So, in a way, I’m glad there are the JC’s (both of them) out there to show their wares and get a dialog going.
April 25th, 2008 at 9:34 am
The key for the success on “make money online” business is the ability to see the hidden things in these processes and fast apply before others become aware of them.
May 12th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Hello, just wanted to say you have best Advertise page ever written !!!
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:04 am
Brilliant post.. I run a website that teaches people how to spot such scams… and I get numerous emails of people still asking me whether this or that website is a scheme.
My advice is always … if its too good to be true… you know the rest!
And yet so many people still fall for it - $100 a day my beep beep!!