Mylot - Joining the Web 2.0 Crowd?

If you are a regular user of Mylot you may have noticed the site when down a couple of hours ago. It's back online again now and it's had quite a major update!

Logging on now greets you with a 'Myspace' style profile page. It contains a variety of information, for example a local weather report, sport teams I 'cheer for' as well as a sort of summary of discussions and hobbies. The old profile pages still exist but it looks a little different.

The whole thing looks like a shift in the 'Web 2.0' direction. Is Mylot becoming yet another social networking site? This isn't necessarily a bad thing, after all it shows the progress Mylot have made. They now boast 83,120 members, which is more than double the number they had when I joined. However, it has seemed like that growth rate has slowed down over the last few weeks.

The new profile page is found on the actual mylot homepage (once you log in... you will see what I mean). This means the days 'top discussions' are no longer the main focus. Perhapps Mylot is shifting away from its forum focus.

I am glad that Mylot are doing well, but in this attempt to keep up with other social sites they are entering into a very competitive area. They are also in danger of becoming all to similar to Myspace and Facebook. I hope they do not stray to far from their paid posting roots.


EDIT:
Mylot have also started a 'blogs' section. Users can add their blogs and subscribe to other blogs. You can create subscription buttons like the one below:

Provided by myLot

This blogging section is a really great addition! To make full use of it join Mylot now. I can't wait to see what they do next!

Week 9 Earnings Report + Rankings

Here are the figures for this week, and yes, this post is normally made on a Friday... but I got a little sidetracked... The figures in brackets are the increase since last week; the main figures are cumulative. It is fairly self-explanatory; have a gander!

Mylot: $20.28 (+$0.39)

Adsense: $55.03 (+$11.93)

Text Link Ads: $50 (no change)

Lightspeed Panel Surveys: 1825 points = approximately $42. (No change)

Ciao: £7.73/$15.46 (+$2.12)

Cashcrate: $3.25 pending, $0.08 earned (+$0.08).

Treasure Trooper: $0.50 (no change).

SlashmySearch: $2.69 (+$0.12)

Amazon Associates: $16.50 (+$16.50)

Total: $202.54 (+$29.35)

Technorati Rank: 21,140 (-2,394) (remember a ‘ – ‘ is a good thing with rankings!)
Alexa rank: 348,222 (-162,999)

As usual it was a bit of a mixed week but it is nice to cross the $200 mark. Surprisingly traffic has been down this week (which you will find out later today with the google Analytics Weekly Overview), but AdSense earnings have still increased more than they did last week. I still consider that a loss though, because at this stage it is more important to grow the blogs readership than initial AdSense earnings.

The SlashmySearch earnings are low because they have temporarily lowered the pay rate, but they assured us all via their forum that the normal rates will be returning "really soon".

Now that I'm reaching the top end of the Technorati rankings; moving up them has become harder but the Alexa rank is still increasing substantially.

As usual I must remind you about the impending release of the AGLOCO Viewbar so those earnings will be kicking in soon!

Goals for March

Remember these aims for February?:

- "Provide a blog that people actually find useful and isn't just me displaying my knowledge."
This is the biggie, it is an on-going process but I would say I have done quite well with this (well I hope I have, I have no way of telling for sure).

- "Increase traffic to 300 visitors a day if I make one post per day."
I have failed; I have increased traffic to a high point of 256 page views in a day, yet alone unique visitors.

- "Get into the Technorati top 100,000 (at the moment I’m ranked about 170,00)."
I achieved this ages ago, I'm now ranked 23,534.

- "Get Dugg once (achieving this would basically mean I achieve my other aims)" .
I failed, but then to be honest I haven’t really been trying to get Dugg.

- "Get 100 people in my AGLOCO network (at the moment I have 25)".
I failed- I have 40 people now in my AGLOCO network.

- "Get to Level 7 on Bestcashrewards (at the moment I am on Level 3)".
I failed, but only because they have been 'restoring the member pages' for weeks, preventing me from getting any referrals.

So again a mixed month, but in my opinion a lot of those goals showed my naivety and were over-optimistic. I am very happy with the progress this blog has made and I see little point in making goals like this for another month. I am obviously going to try to achieve all of the failed aims from last month, and continue developing this blog. I'm expecting a Google PageRank update in about a month (because they do them every 3 months or so), which will make things really get interesting.

Week 8 Earnings Report + Rankings

Here are the figures for this week. The figures in brackets are the increase since last week, the main figures are cumulative. It is fairly self-explanatory; have a gander!

Mylot: $19.89 (+$0.47)

AdSense: $41.64 (+$10.05)

Text Link Ads: $50 (no change)

Lightspeed Panel Surveys: 1825 points = approximately $32. (No change, apart from a bonus $10HMV voucher :D)

Ciao: £6.67/$13.34 (+$1.24)

Cashcrate: $3.25 (no change)

Treasure Trooper: $0.50 (no change).

SlashmySearch: $2.57 (+$1.45)

Total: $173.19 (+$23.19)

Technorati Rank: 23,534 (-8,786) (remember a ‘ – ‘ is a good thing with rankings!)
Alexa rank: 511,221 (-49,347)

So, over all, a bit of a mixed week. The main improvement has been AdSense earnings, which last week were not even on an average of over $1 a day. This is actually a double since last week, which happened because of a double in traffic. I will go into this in more detail tomorrow with my second Google Analytics Weekly Overview.

The "bonus $10HMV voucher" from Lightspeed Panel Surveys was not officially a bonus, but more of a surprise. I have been a member of Lightspeed Panel Surveys since before they started their current points system and the HMV voucher was something I 'earned' before they made the switch. It hasn't arrived yet but why would they send me an email reminding me about it if they weren’t going to send it?

Also, don't let the low increase in Mylot earnings fool you, Mylot has been a substantial source of traffic for this blog and a great promotional tool for getting referrals, namely for SlashMySearch, where I got 8 referrals over nigh from a single post on Mylot. Almost all of the SlashmySearch earnings are from my referrals, so I don't consider that a loss either. There is a lot more to say about this, all of which will be said tomorrow, so stay tuned!.

P.S. The AGLOCO Viewbar is scheduled to be out later this month, so those earnings will be kicking in soon!

Alternatives to Wealthtoolbox

You could tell from my Google Analytics Weekly Overview that 'Wealthtoolbox' and 'Wealthtoolbox scam' are my two top keywords people type into Google to find this site. It is a great shame that Wealthtoolbox is not a program that I support or I would have a zillion referrals in just a few days. I have made this brief list of alternatives to Wealthtoolbox for all those of you who found this site via that keyword and were disappointed by My negative review of it.

The sites listed are all money making sites that I trust. They are not HYIP's (high yield investment programs) like Wealthtoolbox is because I simply don’t trust any HYIP's; instead they are other ways of making money online, all of which are FREE .

1. Mylot.
Basic overview
You get paid for posting and taking part on the forum.

Detailed overview
You get paid on Mylot for:

1. Starting discussions (the more replies you get the more you earn, so its in your interests to make them interesting – this makes Mylot a great community to be a part of!)
2. Replying to other peoples discussions (you get more if you do a more in depth post - about 4 lines or more)
3. Uploading relevant images to your replies and/or discussions
4. Uploading images to your interests (you get more if you write about them)
5. Getting referrals (you get to keep 25% of your referrals earnings - they do not lose anything)

Note: you do not get paid for replying to discussions you have started, but you should still do this as it can help to keep the discussion going and will make you a more respected member.
Join Mylot.

2. SlashMySearch
Basic overview
- Get paid to brows the web with the SlashMySearch search engine.
- Earn from 65% of your referrals earnings

For a Detailed overview see my indepth review and proof of payment.

3. AGLOCO.
Basic Overview
- Get paid to browse the web using the 3. AGLOCO custom Toolbar.
- Make lots of money when AGLOCO goes on the stock market at the end of the year.
- Earn from your referrals

For a detailed overview see this post about AGLOCO.

4. Text Link Ads For webmasters/bloggers only
Basic overview
- Get paid to publish Textlinkads on your site.
- Advertise on other people’s sites, there is a free £100 starter coupon.

Week 7 Earnings Report + Rankings

A while back I said I would be switching to weekly earnings reports from monthly ones (which just take too long to wait for). You can see my January Earnings Report here.

So here is the first weekly earnings report, which is at week 7. The figures in brackets are the increase since the last earnings report, which in this case was 3 weeks ago. The main figures are cumulative for the 7 weeks.

Mylot: $19.42 (+$0.57).

Adsense: $31.51 (+$17.01).

Text Link Ads: $50 (+$25).

Lightspeed Panel Surveys: 1825 points = approximately $32.

Ciao: £6.10/ $12.20 (+$1.20).

Cashcrate: $3.25 (+$0.45).

Treasure Trooper: $0.50 (+$0.00).

SlashmySearch: $1.12 (+$1.12).

Total Exactly $150

Technorati Rank: 32,320
Alexa Traffic Rank: 560,568

A word about Mylot. Don't be deceived by the low earnings. I have been using it for getting referrals for other programs, namely SlashmySearch, which I am still experimenting with. And with the Lightspeed Panlel Surveys, that $32 is not all from the 3 weeks, I missed it out by accident before so I don't know how much I had earned at the end of January.

It is quite surprising that Text Link Ads is the largest earner, especially because I was rejected from their publisher program for not having a Google Page Rank. Those earnings are just from their afffiliate program! I received the first $25 from them a few weeks ago and you can view My proof of Payment here.

Also, don't forget about other things like AGLOCO and Bestcashrewards. Bestcashrewards is currently undergoing some maintenance so you will have to wait until its fixed before you sign up :p. Nevertheless, once the AGLOCO Viewbar is released the earnings will start to arrive, although most of the earnings will be from the stock market when AGLOCO floats on it at the end of the year. You can see my post about John Chow getting 1000 ALGOCO signups in 10 days which has info about my predicted earnings from AGLOCO.

Tomorrow there will be the first Google Analytics Weekly Overview, where you will be lucky enough to find out how much traffic this site gets and where it gets it from.

Target for February already hit!

You may remember that back in my'Looking up the Skirt of January as she goes past' post I aimed to "Get into the Technorati top 100,000". At the time I was ranked about 170,000. Well as of today I am ranked 77,227! This is an increase of nearly 100,000 in a week or so! You can imagine I am very happy about this.

Things are starting to look up 'at last'. I have been working on this blog for about 6 weeks now and it seems that I have finally recruited a worthy AGLOCO referral who is actually getting some referrals him/herself. On Bestcashrewards I am tantalizingly close to attaining the number of referrals required for payment. Their site is currently under repairs so forgive me if that link doesn’t work properly.

Mylot is plodding away as usual. I rarely post on there any more but my referrals are earning me a little each day. I haven’t made any new referrals on Text Link Ads but I am still pleased with them because they sent me my first ever check from 'the internet' for $25 for a referral I made in January.

So the moral of the story is just to stick at it!

Looking up the skirt of January as she goes past

January has seen a boom in both my knowledge and for this blog. It is now just over a month old and has over 60 'decent' posts, which isn't bad for its first month. Its traffic has steadily grown although is still far from what I'd like. I used to struggle to get 100 visitors per day but now if I make just 1 post a day this blog gets at least 120 visitors. Money wise, my AdSense earnings have significantly increased since I repositioned them to be in their current positions, although much more traffic is needed to make a decent amount. I have made lots of online contacts and personally I have learnt a huge amount, which I have tried to pass on to you.

Aims for February:

- Provide a blog that people actually find useful and isn't just me displaying my knowledge.

- Increase traffic to 300 visitors a day if I make one post per day.

- Get into the Technorati top 100,000 (at the moment I’m ranked about 170,00).

- Get Dugg once (achieving this would basically mean I achieve my other aims)

- Get 100 people in my AGLOCO network (at the moment I have 25)

- Get to Level 7 on Bestcashrewards (at the moment I am on Level 3)

- Get listed in DMOZ the free directory/Alexa, (I submitted many moons ago but its still not listed; this isn't an aim I actually have any influence over). This will allow me to get a Google Pagerank at the next update and which means I will be able to display Textlink ads.

I believe every one is achievable. It will take a lot of work but will set me in good stead for the rest of the year.

Mylot - Earnings

In recent days I have been struggling to find time to post on Mylot, which is a real shame because it's one of the things I most enjoy doing online. Mylot has fallen into the group of social networks I use to promote this blog (amongst other things). This not necessarily a bad thing, before this happened I earned $18 which isn't a huge amount but given how easy (and fun) it was to earn I'd say it was worth while.

I used to say that I viewed posting on Mylot as a sort of 'paid break' from SEO and blogging because it has such variety of topics. I could just forget about blogging if I wanted to and go and start posting about evolution or anything that took my fancy and earn a little money while I was at it.

Mylot's population has been growing so quickly (it is now 64,534 nerds strong) and so many new features have been added I have had trouble keeping up. This makes me feel old, which I shouldn't given how young I am. To make online contacts, have fun, feel old and make some money join Mylot here.

Roll Up! Get Mylot Banners Free!

As you all know I am a devoted member of Mylot. Here are some banners I designed which you can use to promote Mylot and get referrals.

To download your new ad to your PC or Mac, follow these simple steps:
1. Click on the banner, a new page will load where you can view the banner in all its glory.
2. Click on the banner ad with your RIGHT mouse button (Mac Users: click and hold mouse button)
3. Select "SAVE IMAGE AS" or "SAVE PICTURE AS". (Do NOT select "COPY IMAGE LOCATION").
4. Specify the name of the file you want to save to (such as "addesign.gif").

If these are popular I will design more, if you want more just leave a comment and ask nicely.

Mylot: Update

I am very happy with the progress Mylot have made. They recently made this announcement:

"Over the past two months we have been working to significantly improve the myLot searching experience. With this new addition, users can now:

Search the web
Search myLot discussions
Search myLot photos
Search your own myLot private discussions

If you haven’t started using myLot Search, now is the perfect time to begin!

As always, we would love to hear your feedback regarding this new product."

Mylot has been growing so fast the team have been working overtime. Mylot is actually one of my smaller online earners; I only made about $25 from them last month. But that’s what so great about them, they are not all about the money. I actually enjoy spending time there. Its almost like a 'paid break' from all the other SEO and studying I do. You have to admit that letting out a lot of stress can be achieved by passionately arguing for your beliefs, or even just for the sake of it. The topics on Mylot are on anything you want, I tend to reply to ones that interest me rather than spamming them. You get paid more for writing more as well so this pays of nicely for me. I also pick up (and give out) some handy tips about making money online, which I implement when I’m back to work. This takes you to my Mylot profile where you can take a gander, and sign up if you
like.

Mylot Tips

According to my results from Hit tail, there is a demand for tips about how to earn on Mylot. Mylot is a forum; with over 58,000 members where the topics can be on ANYTHING you want. As usual I am an experienced member and here is the advice you seek:


You get paid on Mylot for:

1. Starting discussions (the more replies you get the more you earn, so its in your interests to make them interesting – this makes Mylot a great community to be a part of!)
2. Replying to other peoples discussions (you get more if you do a more in depth post - about 4 lines or more)
3. Uploading relevant images to your replies and/or discussions
4. Uploading images to your interests (you get more if you write about them)
5. Getting referrals (you get to keep 25% of your referrals earnings - they do not lose anything)

Note: you do not get paid for replying to discussions you have started, but you should still do this as it can help to keep the discussion going and will make you a more respected member.

There has also been a new auction system, a bit like eBay, which has been introduced, so be sure to check that out.

And that’s about it!

Mylot members: I hope you find these tips useful

Non Mylot members: You can sign up here.

Traffic Tips for Beginners

As you have all noticed, I have taken a break from explaining my experience of making money online. This is not because my experience has stopped, nor because I have no advice to give you. It is in fact because I have been so busy finding out about new methods that I have had not choice but to make 'short n sweet' posts.

A very useful way of making money online is by bringing more traffic to your website/blog. This can be done a number of different ways, all off which should be utilised.

1. Get higher ranked in the search engines.
2. Have your site listed in the main directories.
3. Have your site listed in niche directories.
4. Publicise your site in forums e.g. Mylot.
5. Publicise your site in free classified ads, e.g. Vivastreet.
6. Have your site jam-packed with useful, original content.
7. By getting links to your site displayed on other sites of prominence.

Number 1.(debatably the most important) can be achieved by using the other methods. This is because each link to your site acts as a 'vote' in the all-seeing eyes of the search engine. You can go about gathering links by browsing blogs and requesting link exchanges to blogs that are related to yours, have a high quality of content and (hopefully) have a higher level of web traffic than you. This method, although rewarding (as you develop a more personal relationship with your fellow bloggers) can be very slow, and ineffective.

Untimatly, it all comes down the OC (like everything in the world...) ORIGINAL CONTENT. If you content is good enough you will find people coming back for more, and if its REALLY good they will tell their friends and you will have to spend less time completeing the tedious other methods.

I will be explaining more about the other key ways in the near future, so stay tuned!

Mylot

Hi everyone,
I have briefly mentioned the Mylot forums before, but I do not feel I did them justice. They are one of the many free money-making tools available to us on the net.

What is Mylot?
Mylot is a forum, with over 51,000 members. It is growing very quickly becase its users get paid in US dollars per post.

What exactly do the members get paid for?
Members get paid for:
1. Starting a new discussion. (the more replies they get the more money is earned, so they have to make them interesting!)
2. Uploading relevant images to their discussion.
3. Uploading relevant images to a reply they make to someone elses discussion.
4. Replying (posting) to someone elses discussion (better the post the more is earned)
4. Uploading images to their 'interests' section.

This can make posting on mylot actually quite enjoyable, as users strive to make a community that discusses only topics of interest.

Note: There is never any fee, I only ever talk about free ways of making money online.

My Tip:
Invite people to be be in your 'freinds' section, (dont worry you dont have to know them personally). You can then post in each others topics with benefits you both.

You can join mylot here:

Mylot

Best of luck!