The Money Blog Experiment

Hi. Imagine my surprise to notice traffic coming from museumofhoaxes in reference to my blog, The Blog Money Experiment.

Rest assured, the site is not a hoax. There is a distinct blog designed to produce profit ("the money blog") in addition to The Blog Money Experiment, which exists to chronicle its development and solicit opinion and advise.

The Blog Money Experiment is designed to be a step-by-step look at how one relative amateur is approaching blogging for-profit. The idea is to provide something of an ongoing "how-to" or "how-not-to" guide and as a location where both newbies and experts alike can share their input and observations.

I did recently semi-monetize The Blog Money Experiment by placing Amazon ads on the page. As you observed, however, the items placed on the blog were not related to the subject matter (unless you consider Milan Kundera novels the foundation of a successful for-profit blog).

It was more of an opportunity to share some of my personal interests with visitors. Admittedly, if I happened to make a buck in the process I wouldn't have turned the money down, but that move was not emblematic of a hoax.

To demonstrate the sincerity of The Blog Money Experiment, I will be removing the Amazon ads after commenting on this article.

A retraction from museumofhoaxes would be appreciated, but is not necessary.

Meanwhile, any museumofhoaxes readers with an interest in blogging for-profit to stop by The Blog Money Experiment to lend their opinions, observations and questions to my process.

Thank you.
The Blog Experimenter

Blog Money Experimenter, I don't think you should take down the Amazon associate ads. In fact, I think you should add google ads to both sites and run them side by side, as an experiment.

What I was trying to say was not that you were running some kind of scam, but simply that you must have had an inkling going into this that the site detailing the experiment would soon turn into the high-traffic site... and therefore the best one to make money off of. And so the real 'money blog' is the site about running the experiment, and not the other way around.

Alex,

Wow, that was a quick response!

I didn't really have any idea of what response would be like to The Blog Money Experiment. I just thought it might be nice to share my approach and to solicit opinions from others.

When I decided to embark on a for-profit blog, I did some research and found scant how-to info in any cetnralized location. Thus, I created the companion blog (Blog Money Experiment) to sort of serve that function and to create a dialogue about the how-to's of blogging for bucks.

I had no idea it would gain readership the way it has. I am pleased with that, but I want to keep its integrity intact. I think that integrity will be key to making The Blog Money Experiment useful and helpful.

Your initial reaction to the inclusion of Amazon ads reminded me of that, and I have already removed them.

Hopefully "the money blog" will eventually get the kind of attention Blog Money Experiment has been getting!

Thanks,
Blog Experimenter

Your experiment reminded me of the old lesson that the people who made the most money during the California gold rush weren't the miners, but the people who sold supplies to the miners.

So I figure that during the blogging gold rush the people who make the most money won't be the bloggers, but instead the people who sell the supplies to the bloggers (i.e. offer to teach them how to make money from blogging).

I suppose that if you make the Blog Money Experiment non-profit that would prevent cynics like me from saying that the Blog Money Experiment was the real Money Blog all along. Though I imagine it'll be painful to watch traffic to the Blog Money Experiment rise and rise and know that you could be making money from that, but you're not.

His money blog experiement isn't new, there are at least two other guys out there w/ blogs about generating cash flow with your blog and numerous blogger forums covering topics of how to improve your search engine rank and getting links to improve traffic. I think his other blog might exist, but w/o verification of it's URL it does give off the "smoke and mirrors" vibe of a hoax. Although his reason for not sharing the url is valid if this is a true experiment, if everyone knew the name of his "money blog" as he calls it, the data is going to be skewed. If anything his chronicle of the money blog on his blog4bucks at the very least would be grounds for writing a book on the subject.
I have to say though, after reading his "blog4bucks" he appears to be more than just a novice at this. I should know, because I am a novice!

Cap'n Platypus...

You are right on re: my reasons for keeping the blogs separate. You are also right re: me no being the only guy out there doing this. I do think my site offers a different perspective, as it is designed to be more of a step-by-step look at the process.

Re: being an amateur... Well, I am a long-time net user with no site design or blogging experience. I consider myself a well-researched newbie, but a newbie nonetheless.

If the topic area interests you, please feel free to stop by regularly and add your input.

So, what is the URL of the money blog?

Give him a Dollar and he will tell you.

Hey Blog Experimenter, why not anounce a definite close out date on the experiment? Once the experiment is over, after a year or perhaps two, you could let everyone know what the URL for the other site is/was and all hint of deception would be gone. I've been thinking about a blog with links just to provide a few extra bucks for printer ink and paper. I might stop by your site to get some tips.

The "money blog's" URL will not be given out at this time for a few reasons: (1) The spillover traffic from Blog Money Experiment would be tough to isolate (impossible w/ respect to Adsense) and would skew the data for this whole project. (2) Providing the URL could result in pity-clicks from those reading the other blog and/or could invite other forms of click fraud. I like the idea of keeping my Adsense account whether this works or not.

When I started the project, I gave it a six-month time frame. As such, I mentioned on the blog earlier today that the URL of "the money blog" will be revealed in August. August 20, I believe is the set date. At that time, I will cough up the location and serve up the goods ("the money blog" will be stripped of Adsense once revealed, of course).

I have been surprised at the level of suspicion generated by this project. There is nothing too sneaky going on here. Just a "beind the scenes" look at a first-timer trying to turn a buck or two with a blog.

Nah, I wouldn't sell the location information for a dollar. Although that might be a decent deal for me once it's all said and done.

"His experiment is to create a blog, put Google Ads on it, and see how much money he can make off the venture."
Isn't that exactly the same experiment EVERYBODY who has a blog with ads on it is doing?

Just curious, does anyone really think he will be able to remain anonymous and keep the "money blog" separate from his experiment until August? That will be interesting!

I can remember back when "blogs" used to be called "websites." I must be an old-timer.

The guy could tell Alex the url of his "money blog." Then Alex could verify that it isn't a hoax without revealing the url.

Daniel, I actually suggested this to the 'Blog Experimenter' in an email I sent him. No reply yet, though. Which makes me a little suspicious. Even if he doesn't tell it to me, he should tell it to some trusted third party. Would make the whole thing more credible.

I think someone will track his other blog down before the august deadline, if it exists (and I'm willing to believe that it does). Just a hunch. Although I do agree that having his experiment verified by a third party would validate it. Hell, he could even sue for lost revenue if the validator double crosses him and reveals the money blog!

This is interesting...Like Bernd, will the date keep getting pushed back? Only time will tell!!

The original posts to Blog Money Experiment explained this was a 6 month project. As such, I have decided to release the URL at the six month mark.

I really don't see a need for 3rd party verification. Why not? (1) The Blog Money Experiment is NOT monetized. There is absolutely no way for me to turn a buck off of that blog. With no financial benefit, I can't imagine why anyone would doubt its veracity. (2) The blog speaks for itself. I believe its contents would certainly convince even the more hardened skeptics out there of its sincerity.

In any case, feel free to check in at Blog Money Experiment whenever you'd like and if you are really a doubter, be sure to stop in for the August "reveal."

Thanks.

...Until you decide to hold it hostage unless someone pays you $100mil. 😉

Blogs are a big way to monitize your traffic and grow your side revenue. I have been working with this stuff since long and realized that putting AmazonAds directly did not work that much better as Google Ads in terms of revenue, but Google Ads has a turnaround in terms of cents while Amazon talks in terms of Dollars.

More brain sessions on this topic lead to a nice stuff today which is called AmazonAds. AmazonAds is a fast and easy way for website publishers of all sizes to display Amazon unobtrusive product ads on their website's content pages and earn money. and the best part is that this service is FREE to use and AmazonAds does not charge for this service. Your revenue goes directly to your AmazonAssociate Account.

Please Visit: http: // www. amazonads. net for more information.

Hey Alex, is Andrew Hillman paying you for his advertising?

Funny to find this subject here! I created my own blog some months ago, to let my family and friends get some news without having to send dozens of e-mails. Then I heard about this adsense program, and put some of it on my blog, like lots of people I presume, mainly to see what it is (as I have a very low traffic of course, given the audience of my blog).
Then I realized that it seemed so easy that lots of people would certainly 'spam' the blogosphere just to get some cash with it. And so I decided to create a new blog one week ago, with this principle : try to post each day a new solution to make money from the net (in a 'regular way' of course) and after some weeks, (months?) be able to point out that the best solution was to create this blog about making money (well I'm at the beginning so it is still hard to tell, but I guess it will be...)

Money blogs should work I think.

Great Post Vishal!
We are from http://www.worldbusinessforsale.com/

Blogging about money can be profitable.
I think you would like http://www.howto-getrich.com

Wish I had thought of it.... 😊