Enkay Blog

Is Making Money Online Overrated?

I have been hearing a lot of people talking about Making Money Online by blogging and that is one of the main reasons why I moved away from the Make Money Online niche because it is becoming too crowded. There are millions of blogs out there and a couple hundred thousands are devoted to teaching others how to Make Money Online.

It seems that everyone is considering themselves an expert in the subject and although I didn’t consider myself a success, I provided tips regarding blogging and advertising which isn’t the same thing for the most part. There is a reason why I don’t consider some blogs true Make Money Online blogs and the reasons are listed below:

1) Too Many Bloggers – There are too many bloggers out there that are talking about the same thing and only about 10% of them are actually making a decent income online. Overall only about 5% are making enough money to sustain a decent standard of living, the rest are making supplemental income.

2) Not Enough Money – As I mentioned above, there are lots of bloggers out there that aren’t even making enough money. I considered myself a Make Money Online blog till I realized that the income I make from this blog isn’t enough to be considered staggering and so I decided to stay away from the monthly income reports but I have decided to start reporting my income again based on the fact that I won’t be in the niche of Make Money Online anymore. You have to make atleast $1,000 per month to be called a proper Make Money Online blog.

3) Active Vs. Passive Income – Most bloggers that do make a little bit of money are heavily involved in making that income. By that I mean that most of the income earned is by writing reviews or things of that nature. If you need to be a true Make Money Online blog you need to earn income not only through paid reviews but also through Google Adsense, Kontera, Text Ads or Banner Ads. Passive Income is pretty much described as an “effortless” income stream.

I don’t know about you but I think that it is safer to stay away from the Make Money Online niche unless you are making really good money online. I dont know what you guys feel about the blogs that consider themselves “Make Money Online” blogs but don’t really have the proof to support that claim. Let me hear some comments!

Painting With Fries & Ketchup?

So, it is said that in blogging you need a lot of patience but how much patience and time does it take to create a painting using an order of large fries from McDonalds and a few packets of ketchup? Well, apparently 50 minutes worth. Here is a fascinating video that speeds up a 50 minute work of art into 4 minutes. You will be amazed!

Why Bloggers Disappear

Its a sad part of blogging nowadays but a lot of bloggers that were frequent visitors of my site are starting to fizzle out. I won’t count myself out of the group but I have started to try and post at least 4-5 times a week again. I don’t really know how to explain that some of the bloggers that would be described as “upcoming” a few months ago are now struggling to maintain a post a week. I can’t take any names because I can also fall in that category, but there may be a few reasons when you feel that you just can’t post as much. Here are some good excuses:

1) Busy with other projects/school/work – Its true, not everyone makes a great living by blogging to be able to quit their daily jobs or to quit school for that matter. I go to school and most other bloggers have a life outside of the internet and sometimes they get tied up with other things.

2) Don’t know what to blog about – I have that issue sometimes. I feel that I have covered most issues but there is always something that you can think of that you may not have blogged about, atleast not in detail. It happens that you reach a point where you feel that you are just repeating yourself. You need to find new sources of inspiration to keep you going!

3) Just plain lazy – I’m not pointing fingers at anyone because once again, I feel the same way sometimes. I may have a great idea but I don’t feel like doing it now and all that leads to is procrastination. If you’re feeling lazy you need to try and motivate yourself to do what you have to do and that is the only way you will accomplish something.

I have seen several bloggers start to disappear but I was wondering if you guys knew of a few that were also on leaving the blogosphere. Do you guys feel that you are slowing moving away from blogging?

SweetHacks, Friggin’ Sweet!

Everybody knows who Abdalla Ahmed is, he is the genius behind Sweethacks.com. If you haven’t heard of it, then you have’nt been around the blogosphere yet or you have just been a little lazy to do so. Abdalla is a Chemical Engineering student from UK and his blog Sweethacks talks about technology. Abdalla’s blog recently crossed the 100 feed reader mark and has quickly moved up to over a 130 readers which is a great accomplishment for any blogger. All in all, this is a technology blog so lets take a look at the different aspects of his blog:

Design
First of all, he has switched to a nice new magazine style theme called Revolution and has taken it to the next level by customizing it. Once you browse over to the website it is clearly visible that he has branded it with a great logo setting it apart from others who may be using the same premium theme. Secondly, he has placed two RSS buttons. One is located in the header but is quite small but there is another sidebar widget that displays a button, a feed ticker as well as an email subscription form. The idea of locating the RSS buttons at the top has been a big issue for most websites and that is why I reiterate it during all my reviews but Abdalla has done a good job in that department.

Furthermore, I like that he has incorporated videos into his blog in the manner that he has. You have some really great articles in the middle, a video right next to it followed by product reviews below it. I think that if you have always wanted the Magazine style theme then you need to check out Sweethacks because most people usually get a magazine style theme but their blogs do not fit into that category but this one surely does. I like that the Google Adsense adblock is integrated the way it is because at first, you really do not notice it. He also has a nice header ad which is a great location for that ad because it doesn’t bother you.

Content
As far as content goes, Abdalla always has had some really good posts and the way he writes the posts makes it entertaining. I really like their review posts such as the one about the USB Missile Launcher which I have wanted to get for quite a while now. Their post that talked about a t-shirt able to detect wifi signals was also quite interesting to me. His style of writing is different from what you see and thats mainly because apart from being informational Abdalla puts personality and humor into most of his articles which makes it that much better for his readers. I really don’t see any suggestions in the content area as far as his posts go. I have to also mention that he has a Make Money page which is a good resource for those of you who like making money online.

Pros:
- great content with excellent integration of personality and humor
- good placement of RSS ad
- really nicely customized revolution magazine theme
- nice inclusion of videos along with posts
- the categories are neatly organized and do not overlap
- an about us page that tells us about the author but I would like to see a picture too

Suggestions:
- I think that under the “Our Friends” sidebar widget, there needs to be a little rearrangement in the sense that one of the banners needs to be spaced and moved to another spot. Below is a visual that describes that change. The reason to move that is so that people will notice it more since there are two black banners followed by another black banner. If the ads are moved, it will create a color break making it better for the advertisers.

- I also believe that eNews & Updates needs to be changed to RSS and Email Subscription so that it is easier for readers to follow.
- Secondly, I believe that more of the daily updates need to be added to the Featured section but it all depends on the subject matter of the daily updates. If they do not match, then the Featured section works well as it is.

Conclusion
So that wraps up my review of Sweethacks and I want to thank Abdalla for this opportunity. For those of you interesting in buying some adspace, definitely check out his Advertise page as he has some really good prices on banners, rss and text link ads as well as reviews.

Buy TheKingKongBlog!

Well, its sad to find out that one of your best contributors is saying good-bye to blogging. Mahdi Yusuf has been the man behind The King Kong Blog and because of financial issues relating to college, he has to sell his blog. If you have ever been to The King Kong Blog, you know that Mahdi has done a great job with the posts and the promotion of the blog. He has been the Top Commentator here and on JohnChow several times. I really hope that someone is willing to buy the blog from Mahdi because its a nicely established blog that can earn a great monthly income. I am including the Sitepoint ad below so do check it out and place a bid if you are interested. The blog has 35,000 pageviews a month and is a PR3. The bid starts at $600 and closes at $2500 so lets see the bidding guys!