Ning.com takes two!

About a month ago, I have a post on Ning.com. On Feburary 27, 2007, Ning.com has launched its second version.

This version is an obvious attempt to address the biggest issue in the previous version: Unless you clone Ning's pre-built sites, you need to be a good php programmer to build your own social network. But if you are already a good php programmar, you won't even need Ning's service to build your own site, there are many open source php codes that are freely availiable on the web! Thus, Ning is never as popuplar as its creator envisions. On January 20, 2006 TechCrunch even called it a dead application.

This new reincarnation of Ning has a WYSIWYG user interface that let developers to create its own social network through drag and drop. This is the key piece that is missing in its earlier version. This gives non-programmar a chance to build its own social networking site.

What does Ning.com has to do with making money on the web?

If someone asks you what is the number one way to make money on the web, the answer is clear and simple: Launch your own website! Just check John Chow's post on the Internet's biggest Google whore. All of them own some form of web sites (maybe except ShoeMoney),
and please don't forget YouTube got brought by Google for 1.2 billion dollars!

I think if you are interested in making money on the web through building your own web sites. You can use Ning as your testing ground. If your ning site is a success, you can upgrade to its premium service and launches your own site. The biggest drawback is that you have to pay $20 per month to put your Google Adsense ad on your ning site.

As of today, Ning has nearly 30,000 user built applications. You can find TechCrunch newest review on Ning in here.

Johnny's Weekly blogmark (Week of Feburary 19)

Starting from this week, I will post a number of links that I found on the web.

Here are some interesting posts that I come across during the week of Feburary 19:

1. 6 Lessons Britney Spears Can Teach You About Blogging
   
Not only it made the ProBlogger's speed linking on Feburary 21. It has been mentioned by several entertainment blogs too! This article not only make you smile, but can also remind you some very good blogging principals.


2. Increase traffic by Sending your traffic to Other blogs
   
I come up with the idea of creating my weekly blogmark after reading this post.


3. Are you burning blog bridges?
   
This post is from the week before, but I didn't found it until last week. It not only make me think about how I manager my online relationships, but also make me rethink about how I handle my business relationships as well.

DClick ads

DClick Ads is a new advertising service that connect advertisers and web site publishers together. The site offers three types of services:

• Buy and sell traditional banner ads and text link ads, and you can embedded the links directly.
• Direct Link Technology for advertisers. Ads placed on publisher websites are directly linked to your website for maxium traffic and click thru performance.
• SmartCache Ad Serving Technology for publishers utilizing xml ad serving distribution. Maximum uptime and lowest system resources.

I have read several reviews on this site, and most of them complain about its UI design, but this is the last thing I will worry about if I am the publisher or advertiser.

To join DClick Ads, you have to register first. You need to provide your name, addresses and telephone numbers. An email with the verification code will be sent to you. Then, you visit the site again and enter your verification code and this will bring you to the login page.

Once you logged in for the first time, it will ask you whether you are an advertiser or a webmaster (publisher). To sell Ads, you have to follow a three steps process: First, you have to add your web sites, then you have to install and verify the Ad Replacement Software Packages. You then set up your AdZone prices and placement and wait for advertiser to purchase your service.

DClick Ads pays its users every month via US mail. I havn't set up my account yet, but I will try the service to see what it likes.

Top 10 signs of blog addiction

My sister recently got a new job . I immediately left a comment on her blog to congratulate her. Then she calls me on the phone and ask, "Why don't you just call me ?"

This rings a bell on my head. I may become a blog addict!

Here are the top 10 signs that you maybe a blog addict:

1. You find the cure for cancer, and you immediately write a blog about it.

2. You check your blog status every 15 minutes.

3. You forgot to pay your credit card bill, but you know how much you have in your Adsense account.

4. When CNN asks you who is the greatest American President, you reply, "Darren Rowse".

5. You pray to God that your Technorati rank will rise next week.

6. You ask your friends to join the Z-list, when they don't even have a blog.

7. You develop your own blog ranking algorithm based on Technorati, Alexa and Google Page rank.

8. All of your bookmarks are blogs, and you can remember at least 10 blog URLs by heart.

9. You think giving back to your community means replying your messages in your MyBlogLog community.

10. You understand all the jargons in this list, and you immediately create your own list and post it in your blog!

Google BlogSearch

Google BlogSearch has been out for more than a year, and according to Hitwise, it has surpassed Technorati in terms of number of vistis since December 23, 2006.

For me, Google BlogSearch is not only a search engine, but also a very useful blogging tool. Whenever I want to write about a topic, I first go to Google BlogSearch to see if it has already been written. If my topic has already been written, I will either choose a different topic or choose a different angle to write on the same topic.

I like Google BlogSearch because it usually gives me more up to date information than Google itself. It could be because blog post is easier to index than web page. For example, if you go to Google BlogSearch to search for "Britney Spears blogging", you can see Kumiko Suzuki's post on Britney Spears already. You probably can't find her blog post in Google until next week.

I don't know if Google BlogSearch will ever replace Technorati. However, if you want to search for something new, you should use Google BlogSearch before you use Google.

Blogvertise

As mentioned in my last article, "My new Renter", I am looking for other advertising source other than Google Adsense. In less than a day, I found Blogsvertise.

Blogvertise is a site that let bloggers to blog about an advertiser's products, and get paid for it. Before you can work on any assigned jobs, you need to get approved by the site administrator first. After your blog got approved, you can set your minimum payout for each blog request, and Blogvertise will assign jobs to you accordingly. You will get paid about $1 - $5 for each blog post.

To get approval, you need to write a 50 -100 words article on Blogsvertise, and Blogsvertise will notice you once you got approved. I am still waiting for approval from Blogsvertise.

My new renter

If you look at the right side of my blog, you can see a little section that marked as, "New York Nitty-Gritty". This is the new renter of this blog. I sign up for the "Rent My Blog" program in BlogExplosion, and this photoblog owner decides to rent my blog space.

BlogExplosion is one of the many traffic exchange program in the web. The basic concept is simple. You surf other member's blog to get credit such that you can give credit for other members to surf your blog.

I used to be very keen on BlogExplosion when I first start blogging. However, I soon found out that the traffic I got from it are not very useful. Vistors from BlogExplosion usually stay for a very short time, and they will not click any ad! Furthermore, many people on the web claims that traffic exchange program violates the Google Adsense terms of agreement. Thus, I seldom use the traffic exchange program from BlogExplosion any more.

However, I found some of the services provided by BlogExplosion, like "Rent My Blog", has a lot of potential. At the time of writing, BlogExplosion only let members to rent blog space for credit, but in the future, BlogExplosion can let members to rent out blog space for cash. This could be a new revenue source for bloggers. Google Adsense is by far the most popular advertising avenue for bloggers, but since it is paid by click, the income generated by Adsense is not consistent. A "Rent My Blog" type of service can give blogger a consistent stream of income.

More thoughts on BlogExplosion:

• There aren't many bloggers using the "Rent My Blog" service. I consider this as the biggest drawback.
• There are some web sites that let bloggers to sell text link, but they usually requires a high Google page rank.
• If I start a "Blog rental" service, would anyone be interested?

Just another article about SlashMySearch

If you go to Google Blog Search and type "SlashMySearch", you will find 30 articles on this topic today. SlashMySearch is a paid to search web site that pay users to search the internet.

I have read 5 of the 30 articles, all of them only tell you that "SlashMySearch" is about "paid to search". If you think SlashMySearch invents the idea of "paid to search", think again! In 2005, there is a company called, "Netbux", that pays members to search on the Internet. Netbux does not have a sustainable business model, and it is out of business in a short time. The site no longer exists. If you type http://www.netbux.org on your browser, it will show you an online lottery site.

SlashMySearch is a search engine that "not only offers an improved searching experience for the web with thumbnails and advanced security features, it offers an eBay Typo search that automatically generates common misspellings helping buyers find "hidden treasures" or listings on eBay saving them a lot of money". The web site is created by Michael Gabrill and Tri Do from the Orange County.

Saving money on eBay by finding misspelled items is a proven strategy. You can even find books on this topic. SlashMySearch is trying to sell this service using mulitple level marketing. MLM will help build up traffic in a short time, but if SlashMySearch wants to be successful, it has to increase its revenue sources. This may not be what SlashMySearch's founders have in mind though, they may be more interested to be a takeover target.

For people who wants to make a few bucks on the web, SlashMySearch is not a bad choice, especially since it is paying people after earning $50, not $100.

AGLOCO

A famous blogger, John Chow, has recently joined MyBlogLog. His community has instantly become a hot community in MyBlogLog. I have followed John Chow's blog in the past, and has read that he has more than 4,000 members in his AGLOCO network. This makes me want to write about AGLOCO, even though I have not used the service yet.

AGLOCO stands for A GLOobal COmmunity that prides itself as being “owned by its Members”. As a member, you run a Viewbar on your computer, which will show you ads while you browse. You will earn a certain amount of money through browsing, but the quickest way to make money using AGLOCO is through referral.

If you think you have heard this before, you are right. During the dot-com bubble era, there was a company called, "AllAdvantage" that paid users for surfing the net. AllAdvantage was forced to closed its door in 2001, due to sharp decreased in advertising revenue after the dot-com bubble bursts. It had paid out over $120 million during its short life.

I was an AllAdvantage member before, but I havn't tried AGLOCO yet. I never make enough money in AllAdvantage to get a paycheck, because I was lazy. The business environment is different now. Google and Yahoo has proved that an internet company can thrive with advertising money alone, and AGLOCO is definitely not as free spending as AllAdvantage. It will be interesting to see where AGLOCO is a year from now.

Please feel free to share your experience with AGLOCO with me in the comment section.

This week.....

This week is an exciting week for this blog. First, we started to get more traffic from Google. Before this week, almost 70% of the referrals are from myBlogLog, but now, about 50% of traffic are coming from Google. Both "Amazon Mechanical Turk" and "MySiteProfile" posts were well received, and got bookmarked by readers to del.ic.ious and Diggs.com.

My blog also got reviewed by the Rumiator on January 31, 2007.

For the coming week, I will review more money making resource sites, and add a widget to categorize my previous posts.

Thanks everyone for visiting this blog!