BankonThat.com

Did the title get your attention?

I’ve been running content based resource sites since MySpace first came on the scene. I still maintain my main resource sites, but around 7 months ago I decided to try something with my smaller ones.

I have around 8 small niche based myspace layout sites that I basically have no real use for. For some reason I stripped them of all their Ads (google adsense, cpx) a very long time ago. I mainly just used them to get more people using my myspace layouts that had linkbanks + place links on the sites linking my main websites to pass on some PR juice.

About 7 months ago one of the CPA networks I’m in emailed me about a new way to monetize my content sites. I do some PPC marketing and my AMs know the bulk of our work is on content/member based websites. My AM wanted me to put a “content unlocker” on any sites I was willing to try to increase revenue on.

^ Content Unlocker ^

A content unlocker is exactly what it sounds like. It locks your page, blocking out your content and restricting the visitor from navigating anywhere. A box is seen on the screen asking the user to complete 1 quick survey to gain unlimited access to your website’s content. The surveys pay from $0.30 - $5 and only show geo-targeted results. For me they’ve averaged out to around $1.60/survey completion.

The first site I put the content unlocker on has been averaging 200-300 uniques a day from organic search engine traffic. I’ve been running the content unlocker on the site only on the individual “grab this layout” pages as to let the users browse around the site before asking them to complete a survey. Last month the site made $162.27. That breaks down to,
~2 cents profit a visitor
~$5.40/day
~$21.60 ECPM

This site had been sitting on my server chucking along since 2006 with $0 ad revenue. Once I saw the dollars trickle in and that it had no apparent negative impact on traffic I went ahead and placed the content unlocker on all of my other small niche myspace layout sites.

In theory I could make quite a bit more with the content unlocker than traditional advertisements on my main myspace resource site but I’m too scared to do this to 100% of my resource sites. Gotta stay diversified!

So yeah if you have any small or old content sites you’d like to try this on just go register with InstantDollarz and give it a test run. I’ve been starting up newer sites with fresh non-resource site content to see what else people would be willing to complete a survey for. Theres a lot of potential if you want to put in the effort creating new sites and doing a little SEO work or link exchanging.

I’ve seen people using the IDZ Content Unlocker with some shady sites offering to allow you to view pirated movies, ebooks, and pron in exchange for completing a survey. They quickly disable some those publishers. I’d suggest staying away from that route and just use the content unlocker on legitimate sites with worthwhile content

If you have any questions or need help setting up the content unlocker just leave a message and I’ll get in touch with you.

Otherwise happy content unlocking and easy profits off of your extra traffic. You can bank on that!

Its been over a year since I’ve made a post. I’m probably not cut out for consistent blogging as I’m always too busy with trying out tons of new methods to make bank whether its online or offline.

I’m going to start blogging again at a very slow pace. I’m going to shoot for 1 blog post a month and see how that goes. I enjoy blogging its just I usually get behind and blah blah blah.

I’ve been doing a lot of stuff lately and I’m happy to say I met all of those 2008 goals I had.
-I’ve officially been a landlord for close to a year now and that’s going great. Have had to deal with 1 eviction but its still been a profitable learning experience. I’m looking for more properties at the moment so we will see how that goes.
-I’ve started going to Affiliate Conventions and doing a lot of networking. Lots of fun!
-I’ve also increased our office to accommodate 3 full time staff who work with me to create new sites, manage old ones, and maintain our ppc affiliate marketing ad campaigns.

One thing I need to work on is to stop trying to do everything and anything. I’m like a rabid dog when I get a new idea, putting in way too many hours to set it up to see if it will work.

Well with that said stay tuned for a “July Post”.

First off let me say that I will never drink a Monster Energy Drink ever again. I will even take this step further and will never drink any beverage from the Hansen Beverage Company, their parent company.

Yesterday I received a Cease & Desist letter from Hansen Beverage Company demanding I remove a “Monster Energy Drink Myspace Layout” from my site. At first I was a bit confused. They dont want people having monster energy drink layouts on their social networking profiles? This company couldn’t be this ignorant to the kind of increased brand recognition their company receives from social networking layout sites featuring myspace layouts with their beverages on it.

But then again, maybe Im just the ignorant one. I went ahead and complied with them. I removed the layout and I apologized. I am sorry for creating a myspace layout for people who enjoy your beverage, I am sorry for listening to my site visitors who wanted to show off your product on their page. I am sorry for using my creative resources to promote your product.

Heres a quick image of the mini-fridge in our office.

And there you have it. RedBull is the official drink of BankonThat.com and its parent network.

I’m sure everyone has some plastic in their wallet or purse. Does your plastic credit card offer you a spectacular bonus points program? Well if it doesn’t you might want to consider getting a credit card that does, especially if you pay your balances off monthly!

The other day I logged into my Bank of America & Citi Card online accounts and was browsing my accumulated bonus points for the past few months. I went ahead and used a small fraction of my points to get a $50 Barnes and Noble gift card, a $50 Chiles Gift Card, and a $50 Home Depot gift card. I got all of this for FREE. Its even sweeter because I pay my credit card bills in full when I get them so I’ve never paid any interest to these credit card companys. They literally throw things at me to spend my own money! And if you want to look at it this way, by using a credit card, you get yourself 30 extra days of interest on the money you already have because its sitting in your bank account.

This next information is even ridiculously sweeter. I have a friend who works at EB Games/GameStop and he gets a 40% holiday discount at Barnes and Noble. I went with him and spent the whole gift card getting books I would have bought anyways. I got a very nice selection of Finance, Travel, Self-Improvement, and a Comic book. Oh thats right, I enjoy my comics! So with his 40% off, I turned my free $50 Barnes and Noble gift card into $83.33. Add that to my other 2 gift cards, and thats $183.33 I got for free within a few days.

Check out the books below!

A lot of people are afraid of credit cards because they can get you in serious debt, but if you use them wisely instead of putting you in debt they can actually put money in your pocket.

So if you are financially savvy, you should be enjoying some free gift cards or checks on behalf of your credit card company!

Ready for my 2008 new years goals? These are strictly concerning my online/offline business ventures and my financial well being, not my personal life.

1.) Make More Money
I’d like to increase revenue across the board on all fronts. I want to double my current monthly income and create more streams of passive income.

2.) Real Estate Investments
A lot of people talk the talk but they don’t walk the walk. I read everywhere about people saying how great it is to get into the real estate investing but they never do it. Is it just because they cant afford it? Or are they just being lazy? Either way I think its being a bit misleading. If you think its a great thing to do, have the means, and dont do it, it must not be that great after all huh? Enough ranting though, I’d like to pickup a nice condo rental property.

3.) Save those receipts!!
Please, please, please, please, please, please, please save those receipts. In 2007 I did not keep that great of a record as far as my business expenses go and I will be paying for it when it comes time to pay my taxes. I need to get all of my expenses/receipts in order at the end of each month and have them filed. (i probably should buy a filing cabinet for my office)

4.) Save more Money
It doesn’t matter how much money you make, if you blow it all. I’d like to start saving a larger % of my monthly income, more so than I do now. Being the self-employed bum that I am, I also need to get around to setting up a Roth IRA this year for my retirement.

Just wanted to wish everyone a happy new year!

I’ve decided to kick off the new year by blogging at least a few times a week. It helps me wind down after a long (or not so long) day of internet work. Hopefully throughout all of my ramblings someone will learn a new technique, join a new advertising company, or strike it rich. Its the least I can hope for. So please feel free to read and drop me a comment every now and then.

Onto some New Years resolutions. Its that time of the year where you should have already written down your resolutions/goals or at least have started thinking of them. Around this time I like to reflect on the past year financially and figure out where I would like to be this time next year. One year from now will I be relaxing on a beach? Still working hard on the internet? Be focused more on my offline ventures? Hopefully I will find time for all of those things and take my businesses to the next level.

I dont want to bore all of you just yet so I will just mention one of my goals for the new year and will post the rest tomorrow (once I finish writing them).

One of my goals will be to blog at least a few times a week right here on BankonThat.com, Id like to think of this blog as a written journal to help me gauge my progress.

While I head off and ponder the rest of my goals, all of you should be thinking of your own goals and please write them down! Dont keep them in the back of your mind where you are likely to lose them!

WOW… I was on somebody’s nice list this Christmas! I got this package yesterday dropped off by DHL. I’ve had an account with MaxBounty since 2004 but have only really started promoting their offers back in October of this year. I earned low $x,xxx for this year, and as you can see they treat their publishers better than Google when it comes to christmas gifts!

!Click to Enlarge!

About a week ago MaxBounty sent me the card displayed in the pictures. I figured that was my Christmas present until the gift basket arrived.

I’ve already eaten most of the Candy/Cookies with my family and we’ve thoroughly enjoyed it! This is one reason I love being a site developer (is that what I am?), there is always extra presents on their way from companys wanting to show their appreciation. After all, I did earn them a nice paycheck, and you can Bank on That!

Most likely in January I will have a blog specifically about MaxBounty to show a simple way to find hidden revenue potential on your own site. So stay tuned for that!

Happy Holidays and I hope everyone is enjoying their publisher/advertiser presents as well.

This just got dropped off at my house. Thinking their present got better this year? Don’t bank on that!

click to enlarge!

Seems I’m on the naughty list of Google. Ive been seeing around the web buzz of the 2007 Google Christmas Present being described as a 2gb USB memory card. If you want to see that present go check out this blog and that one. I’m a bit disappointed as I was very close last year to getting a present through my Adsense Publisher earnings, and I was thinking my first present would be a bit more… something. Random smaller companies I make way less with even send me $25 iTunes gift cards for the heck of it, but then again maybe thats why their small? I guess I cant complain too much, I’m just happy to get something from them. So if you are just a publisher don’t get your hopes up on a Googlicious Christmas Present. Just be thankful you are not going completely broke just yet from the Google eCPM massacre (recent massacre’ish drop in eCPMs across the spectrum).

If by pure luck I do get the 2gb USB card Ill make another post before the end of the year. Otherwise, look forward to January 1, 2008. Then I will start publishing one article a day and hopefully someone who reads my tips will make some mad money. Till then enjoy the holidays!

Okay, I’m sure most of you are familiar with TLA. If you aren’t, TLA stands for TextLinksAds which is an advertising company well known for their large selection of purchasable text links and their free $100 in links offer open to anyone that you should see plastered on most money making blogs/sites.

About five months ago I took advantage of this offer and got my free $100 in text links. At the time they also had a 20% off deal going on and after reviewing my advertising budget I decided to give them a try (as I heard such great things about TLA) so I started up my $x,xxx/month budget. I had evil intentions initially (according to the big G) as I was hoping to move a PR5 site into the PR6 range. The PR juice is what I wanted and the click over traffic was just a bonus. I knew this going in as placement for most TLA ads aren’t prime spots, but lower on the page and often smaller in font.

I requested a proposal from TLA and they drew me up a list of 36 sites to advertise on. I accepted their proposal as well as selected some larger sites with enough PR to push me into the PR6 range no problem.

The FIRST problem I noticed about 2 months into using TLA. I was showing another web developer some of the sites I was advertising on that I thought were really impressive sites. I was kind of confused when I could no longer locate my own ads on this one site in particular. Waited a few days, contacted TLA, and a week later I’m told ads on this particular site haven’t been showing up for almost a month. They give me a few links on smaller sites and we call it even. A week later I noticed I got billed again for the site my ad is no longer on so I canceled the ad and ended up getting an email from TLA (within hours!) asking why I was canceling ads. After explaining the issue and showing previous emails where I was told that ad was being replaced, I got to wait almost a week again to hear from them apologizing and refunding me for that particular ad. They seemed more concerned with maintaining my ad budget then dealing thoroughly with support tickets. Thats the SECOND problem.

So time goes by and Im seeing a small boost in Search Engine traffic and hardly any click over traffic from the ads (expected). I have high hopes of getting to the PR6 oasis, my alexa is rising and PR predictors are saying this could be it… Let me use a scenario to describe what happens next. SO, I just got my favorite kind of ice-cream from the TLA ice-cream truck and I turn around from the truck having just paid for it and BAM! This fairly large scruffy looking guy in a wife beater carrying a poodle and wearing a black tshirt with a giant G logo on it smacks my ice-cream out of my hand and tells me not to be evil. As I stare down at the melting ice-cream on the sidewalk he slaps a badge onto my shirt that states “PR4″ after prompty ripping off my former “PR5″ badge.

Google Trends results for ‘pagerank’ and ‘page rank’
(Credit: Google Trends & News.com)

What happens next is a month or so goes by. TLA emails me every other day to tell me ” Unfortunately, we can no longer maintain on or more of your links.” At this point I’m happy to see they have stepped up their monitoring of ads to ensure they are indeed active. When they spot an inactive ad they give you the chance of refunding or choosing a personally picked ad replacement of equal value. My guess is the increase of publishers jumping ship is partly due to the Google crackdown on paid text links. Its a big no-no and can potentially get you taken out of the Google search engine.

A few days ago I canceled all my ads with TLA (through their one-at-a-time-cancellation-system). It was a good run but I think I just started advertising at the wrong time. In my future posts I’m sure you will come to see how I have a knack for getting into things a bit late, when they are winding down.

The site I was buying advertising for was one of my small myspace resource sites. A few of the big myspace resource site owners Ive noticed are still using TLA as they’ve always done. It might be working out for them but it definitely didnt have any worthwhile results for me. Link exchanges and simple guerrilla marketing efforts (all free but time consuming) proves to have better results than long term Text Link purchases.

TLA is worth a shot for at least the free $100 in links if you haven’t heard of them or haven’t used them as of yet. Just keep in mind you will most likely just be getting the free traffic from your links, and not any PR juice from the big G. Using up that free $100 in text links is just some quick free traffic.

Once my canceled ads run out of time, I think I will try TLA out on the publisher side of the fence and see if I cant bank on that.

This should be quite interesting for a first blog. A quick FYI, I’ve wanted to start a blog for the past two years. I now have some free time and am going to start doing 1 blog a week while tweaking design/setup of this blog so bare with me.

Jay-Z recently released his 10th studio album “American Gangster”. If you haven’t heard of this, its a concept album inspired by the film with the same name. By the way I’ve seen the film and it’s quite good, so go see that if you haven’t! Back to Jay-Z’s album; This album is predicted to be his 10th No. 1 album. This means he will have tied with legendary Elvis Presley for most No.1 albums which only further solidifies his status as a musical legend. Still awake? Okay next up is the fun part.

So on November 6th Jay-Zs album came out. I’m a fan of Jay-Z and I enjoy supporting artists who create awesome music so naturally I preordered his album through iTunes on November 5th. I’m a naturally busy guy, I cant stay idle for too long and I need to keep it movin’ so to speak so it took me a few days to find out he pulled it from iTunes. Earlier today I finally got around to checking iTunes to finish downloading the album (through iTunes you usually download the single available then come back to get the rest of the album on the release date) and his album isn’t there. I look at the single I downloaded and click to get information on the Album its from but it gives me the following error…

First I’m like… okay… Jay-Z must have released his album in the non-US store instead of allowing the US iTunes store to be able to download it. Wait what… this is strange. I spend another 10 minutes looking up his name, album, songs, etc. Am I trapped in some alternate universe where I’m not allowed to download rap albums at 3am in the morning while drinking redbulls?? Eventually I Google Jay-Z and his elusive album to find a few news articles talking about his removal of the album from iTunes. Why would you do this Jay-Z? Dont you know a few people use iTunes? Also why was I able to preorder it the night before?

But alast I’m a sucker for rap music. So okay Jay-Z, you win. Ill do what you want me to do. Heres part of an article from XXLMag.com,

 

Jay-Z pulled American Gangster from the popular iTunes Music Store. According to Jay-Z, he feels the project should be digested as a whole, and not as single tracks. “As movies are not sold scene by scene, this collection will not be sold as individual singles,” Jay said in a statement. Since its debut in 2003, iTunes has let users download individual tracks from officially released albums, allowing them to purchase only the songs they want rather than an entire LP. The album is available for digital download, in its entirety, at Rocafella.com, Amazon.com and Rhapsody.com.

There are articles all over the web about this issue. I found XXLMag first, but after that I bounced around to others like FastCompany and Variety.

Okay Jay-Z, its a bit of an inconvenience to download it from one of these places as I’ve never used them before. I decide to go with Rocafella.com since it is his site after all. I go onto his site, locate the digital album, punch in my credit card info (have fun maxing it out Jay-Z), sigh, and follow through to the download page. Apparently you have to download this little file from PureTracks.com that will facilitate the downloading of his masterpiece album that can only be bought as a whole.

The program loads up and the files start downloading at decent speeds. It clocks me in at 2 minutes remaining to have the album. I started to think how easy this was, and I was stressing over his decision to remove it from iTunes. Sorry I ever doubted you Jay-Z…. oh wait… whats this…

Its about 3 hours since I purchased the album from Rocafella.com and I still get this message. Apparently 4 of the songs (in a random order) are unavailable for download. They just say “Try again later”. I’m kind of irritated, frustrated, and confused. How am I supposed to “digest” your album in its entirety if I cant even obtain it in its entirety from Rocafella.com, where you mentioned people should get it instead of iTunes.

Jay-Z… what kind of sad irony are you going for? He doesn’t let iTunes distribute it because he only wants it sold in its entirety but his own site wont let me download it in its entirety.

I’m going to go back to work and occasionally check out the PureTracks page to see if I get to listen to the other 4 tracks off your album.

If I dont get the 4 tracks downloaded can I get a refund in its entirety?

So a quick warning to the wise, DONT purchase a digital copy of Jay-Zs album off of Rocafella.com.

I’m sure Jay-Z thought he could generate more revenue by not allowing people to get the individual tracks but he is hurting his brand and aggravating his loyal fan base.Will I be buying another album from Jay-Z? Dont bank on that.

Theres a lesson every webmaster or small business owner can take from this. If you are going to try and do something different, make sure you do it right (or as close to it as possible!) The last think you want to do is annoy your customers/visitors/fan base or come off as a money hungry hypocrite.