Flukeit

I recently learned a valuable lesson regarding VBulletin forum script licensing. A couple of years ago, I started a forum using the VBulletin script. I paid for the license and everything was fine, then recently I decided to cut bait with the forum. I needed some cash so I unloaded it at a near give-away price.

When I sold the site and attempted to transfer the license, I ran into trouble. I learned that even though I bought and paid for a full license, in order to transfer the license I had to be “current”. My active status expired 1 year after purchasing the license. I had to shell out more $$ to get the license active again, so that I could transfer the license.

A valuable lesson indeed, rather a costly one as I more or less gave the site away.

Currently, I employ Maxbounty, Azoogle and CJ as my affiliates but decided that I should try to expand a little bit and see what else is out there. Instead of going by what everyone else says is good, I’ll take a look see for myself.

Last night I applied to Primary Ads, and after I applied I was sent an email from them that I’ll be approved within 24 hours, and that I should try out their sister affiliate, Kolimbo. I did. I applied to Kolimbo, and after I was automatically approved, (felt a little wierd) I started browsing through the merchants.

One of the first things I noticed with Kolimbo, what that every merchant that I browsed had a low payout limit of about $25. Does this mean that I have to generate $25 from that merchant in order to get paid anything? I think it does. Screw that. Oh-by the way – After I came back later I got an email from them, stating:

Welcome to the Kolimbo ‘I Need Help!’ email series. This is a series of 30
short emails which you’ll receive everyday. Each one contains a small
nugget of information to help you succeed in becoming an effective
affiliate and earn revenue from your web properties.

I’m not much for spam either, so I probably won’t mess with this one.

As you may or may not know, I run a blog directory and receive thousands of requests for addition to the directory. I have some rules, and one of them is that it has to be an actual blog.

It amazes me how many people register a quick blogspot url, copy and paste a couple of articles, plaster it with tons of ads and call it a blog.

While dictionary.com describes a weblog as

(wÄ›b’lôg’, -lŏg’) n. A website that displays in chronological order the postings by one or more individuals and usually has links to comments on specific postings.

I think it should be taken a little bit further. Sure sites are technically blogs, but I like Dictionary.com’s other definition better.

Splog:

Definition: a fake web blog containing links to sites affiliated with the blogger, set up to boost the search engine rankings and ad impressions for those sitesExample: The purpose of a splog can be to increase the PageRank.

Definition: a web blog created solely to spread spam; spam links added to the comments section of a blogExample: Report splog to help protect and clean up the blogosphere one splog at a time.

Quite often, I find myself reading the Links for Sale forums in DigitalPoint for a good deal and to keep up on market link pricing. Lately, I’ve been noticing more and more blog owners selling blog posts. These range from $5 to $25, and the shocking part of it is you write the post yourself.

Please don’t get me wrong, I have written reviews for websites and software for hire, but I always write them myself. It just doesn’t seem right to do otherwise.

For a webmaster, two things rule – Money and content. In this case, the blog owner is getting both with no work on his/her own.

As I’ve posted in the past, I maintain a couple of different directories. Some are more popular than others, just as some are more strict about the quality/type of sites that are submitted. I can expect several dozen website submissions a day, and if I let a few days go by without maintenance, it can easily get out of control.

That is exactly what happened, and before long there were over 4000 links waiting to be accepted into this directory. I have been putting in a lot of time on it, and now I’m gaining on them. The list of pending sites is down around 3000. I have to work on them every day to keep narrowing the list down.

I have decided that I will be even more selective with the sites I permit. Some of the things that I have decided on, and have implemented are:
1. Site titles that are just keywords, will not be accepted.
2. Titles/descriptions all in caps will not be accepted.
3. I’ve become very picky with sites related to health care, as these generally turn quickly to MFA sites.
4. I’ve been working to market the featured links more. Now that most of the categories have a decent PR, is is not reasonable to shell out a few bucks for a good PR link. A featured link keeps you on the front page and gets you approved normally within 24 hours.

I will keep working hard on this, and I’ve decided I’m not going to stress out about catching up. It’s a free directory and provides a great service to those wishing to improve their website popularity. People shouldn’t expect a free directory to maintain high quality standards, and ultra-quick approval at the same time. Right?