The Red Stapler Chronicles

So why is The Red Stapler Chronicles on my blogroll? Kevin has been playing with IM techniques for a couple of years now, so he is basically a step ahead of me. In reading blogs like his, I'm basically looking for the gotchas - lessons that I wouldn't like to have to learn first hand. For example, there are, at last count, over 256 ways to get yourself banned from Google Adsense. Since Adsense can provide a really nice residual income after the initial investment, this is best avoided. Their terms of service aren't always common sense, and you can believe they have all the basic click fraud schemes covered by now (don't click on yourself, for god's sake - there's a great post in there about postmodern masturbatory taboos, but I'll resist the urge ... as it were :D ).

Back to RSC, this is not a high information blog. Like so many other make money online blogs, the information comes from the context. Install the SEOBook Firefox Plug-in, and check out his SEO stats (if you are not using Firefox, then ... I'm surprised. Why aren't you using it?). About 9 months worth of traffic, 10k views, 3k backlinks, PR 0. Hmmm, he should have better than PR 0 by now - probably monetized too early. And I wouldn't advise the "make money online" in the keyword meta tag. I'm convinced Google now only uses the keyword meta tag to penalize newer sites. Could also be the Cash Crate mention (obviously, I don't care about the PR of this blog :) ) .

What about those 3k backlinks? That's not too bad, although Atniz is only 3 months older and has 51k backlinks (and PR 3). Let's see ... lots of Entrecard and make money online blogs. Quite a few dofollow blog lists. One Digg (here's his profile so you can friend him on Digg - http://digg.com/users/rutgerskevin ). One myspace. One wikipedia (nice - bet it's his number one passive referrer). And a bunch of GPT stuff. Maybe that's why the PR 0? Nothing says "internet ghetto" like low end GPT. On top of that, GPT blogs tend to be link farms.

Now check out that monetization. I don't think there is a monetization option he isn't trying out. That's why I love RSC. Look at that. It's a smorgasboard. Adsense, of course. The mindless Cash Crate thing - he must have pulled a bunch of downline sign-ups, his earnings page lists $3k for Cash Crate. Well, good downline building skills will come in handy once he really goes after the prize. Hope he built an opt-in list. No, of course he didn't. Still doesn't have more than the standard Feedburner subscribe to posts by email button. Kevin, come on, you're supposed to be 2 years ahead of me here. Maybe it's the time he wasted on GPT. Must admit, even I wasted, oh ... an hour on it :rollseyes: He's an Amazon affiliate - which has more potential than I think most people admit, although Google has recently been downranking purpose-built Amazon and eBay affiliate sites - but the only product he has listed is the Swingline red stapler, which is pretty cute, actually (Office Space reference, of course).

He's a Bluehost affiliate. Now this is actually interesting. Hostgator has been offering these ridiculous commissions on new sign-ups. Like $100 per sign-up. No kidding. But, and here is the but, apparently they are using every excuse in the book not to pay out. Well of course, $100 per sign-up wipes out first year revenue, let alone first year profit. But, because Hostgator offered these ridiculously high sign-up commissions, their competitors like Bluehost were forced to offer something comparable. If Bluehost is really paying out, it is a goldmine. No need to be a hosting services reseller, just do whatever you can to get honest-to-god hosting prospects to sign-up for Bluehost, and you'll be pulling the big bucks in no time. If they are really paying out, you should sign-up with them right now and start a Google Adwords campaign ... if they are really paying out ... and there is the catch. Perhaps Kevin knows?

What else ... a bunch more GPT stuff, including outright scams. And, last but not least, the interesting Entrecard upsell http://www.oiopublisher.com/ . I've heard good things about it. I'd be interested to hear about your success stories with them.

All in all, a blog worth watching. Kevin is sure to move from strength to strength. He definitely has goals. It'll be worth watching how he achieves them.