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!

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!

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.