zerotomed.com

What a killer week…That’s really all I can say. This week has been killer. Between my studies and my websites, my life has gone crazy. If you noticed, I have not posted a blog post in the past few days. I have been extremely busy studying for tests and preparing other things and talking with one of my science major friends about a potential project that I have been unable to get to Zero to Med. But, anyways, here’s an update on what is going on:

• Adsense has stopped my ads from appearing. For some odd reason, all I get are public service ads because I have to verify I am who I say I am. It is really quite bizarre, I will be honest, but it is what it is.
• I had a Calculus test and an Organic Chemistry test this week and let me tell you, my major is bloody difficult. I have a hard time getting everything into my mind, but I am sort of getting the hang of things all over again.
• I am looking to sell ScienceChats.com. I love the forum, but it is taking too much time and it is not going anywhere. I could use the money and reinvest it into DormEarning.com and really make some good money from that. So, I think that I may sell it.

Tomorrow is Friday and that is the last day of the week. I can relax and just breathe. And since my birthday is Saturday, I am pretty excited. Nineteen years old. Isn’t it amazing that people my age are able to make a considerable amount of money online? I love it and I hope for the best for everyone. Have a good weekend. And just to clarify, the week ends for college students on Thursdays pretty much. Fridays are easy days. Anyways…Later.

On Dorm Earning, I have found that if I remove the counter, I begin to see an increase in the number of daily readers of my blog via the RSS feed. For a blog that only three days ago had no readers, when I took the counter off and added just a button for them to click, it began to go up rather fast. And that is with no marketing really other than a few blog comments. It brought me to a conclusion that I intend on studying farther with my two blogs: Dorm Earning and Zero to Med.

My hypothesis is: There is no difference between when I use a counter and when I use a normal button. Now, that is called a null hypothesis. What I am trying to do is prove that statement wrong. If I find that there is a difference, the hypothesis will not be supported and thus, I will be one step closer to successfully determining what gauges RSS readership. So many people think that a hypothesis is an ‘if, than’ statement, but null are really the ones scientists use.

The point is this…I have really been hoping for an increase in RSS and if this experiment works, I will finally be there. I want to be at 100 by the end of October for Dorm Earning and I really think that I can get there. If anyone here likes the blog, feel free to subscribe by going to the blog. If you don’t, that’s okay. But, I am really excited about the growth and I expect some great things in the future. Stay tuned for results on this experiment. Thanks.

Since I am always trying to drive some more traffic to my sites, I thought I may show you guys some of the top debates currently on Debateful. The topics are all extremely random, but I have to say, they are all really interesting. They bring up some very interesting points and I really hope that you may find your own opinions wanting to be expressed. But, I suppose that’s the point of this post…To, perhaps, invite some more people to the site and to get them to post their arguments. But, anyways…Here are a few of the top debates I am currently enjoying.

• Gun Control - A very basic debate about whether there should be tighter rules on guns or looser rules on guns. Really enjoyable.
• Child Soldiers - A very interesting debate about child soldiers. Should a child be allowed to fight if they want to fight?
• America vs. Saddam - This debate started as whether or not America should be a militaristic country and have mandatory military conscription, but turned into a debate between this guy and me. It is really quite detailed.

These are just three of the debates currently going on. There are a ton others and more are being added often. If you like to debate and feel argumentative, you ought to stop by and get your opinion heard. Debating can be addicting, but I think that it can be a healthy addiction. Better than smoking, drinking, or staying up late playing flash games when you could be working. So, check out the debates and if you have your own opinion, get it heard.

If there is one debate that I have a lot with my friend, it’s whether or not anyone can make it online. Can some random person just wake up one day and say, “I want to make all my money online,” and then do it? Is that possible or are the current top earners the only ones that can make the money and the rest of us stuck at the bottom making meager amounts while they rack in thousands and thousands a month? Can anyone make it to the top? Do we all have the chance?

In my opinion, yes. I think that we are all able to get there if we have the drive and the motivation to really do it. I think that if I were to sit down from 9-5 and work on my blogs, I could increase traffic double or triple in one week. If I did not have AIM on or I did not have classes, I think I really could easily triple it. I would be able to write two or three posts a day, I would be able to get more things done, and marketing would be a hell of a lot easier. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to do that, so I am a part time entrepreneur.

But, that doesn’t mean that anyone can’t make it. Anyone CAN make it. You have to work, though. In my opinion, if you have the energy, the drive, the motivation, and the passion for success, you are going to succeed. You need to continue working on it and continue expanding it. If you’re at a plateau with your earnings, do something to push them over that plateau. Whatever you do, you CAN do it if you want to do it. But you need to want to do it and that actually is the hardest part. So WANT it and you will HAVE it.

I finally reached the one hundred dollar mark. For those that don’t know, I have never actually received a check from Google. Most of my money each month came from my freelance writing, so I was still bringing in a few hundred bucks a month, but when it comes down to it, I never once got a check from Google and that finally broke about a week ago. I finally pushed over the $100.00 hump and I am excited about it. It has given me the motivation to continue with what I am doing and try to expand what I am doing.

Now, the question that comes up is what can I do with this money? It is only a little over $100, but the truth is, with that money, I can do some very good things. If I were to use the money to get some links on some important blogs, I could definitely get a bit of a boost on traffic. One hundred dollars is exactly what I would need to also purchase one of those Million Dollar Wiki pages. Some people don’t think that they are a good idea, but frankly, I think they are a brilliant idea and I am already gathering the funds for two or three of them. My theory is that if I can highly competitive terms and start to make a profit from them, I could really make a good money.

I am anxious to get the check from them. If all goes according to plan, that $100.00 will turn into $200.00 and then $300.00. I know it can take some time to make money, but we’re entering the better months for earning and I might really see things take off. But, we will just have to wait and see…Stay tuned for another report on how my earnings are doing in another week or so and perhaps some things that I want to change to really ensure that my earnings continue to go up. Until then, I bid thee farewell!

Today, I come from Microbiology lab. I come from an Organic Chemistry lecture where I learned about Alkanes and how they can be sorted. Today, I came from lunch, where my friends and I were laughing. I ate lunch at twelve forty five. But six years ago, I was not laughing. Six years ago, America was silent. Six years ago, the world was silent. A nation that had for so long had offered freedom to those that had come here had been attacked in the most ruthless of ways. It was not an attack on our military. It was not an attack on our government. It was an attack on the innocent lives of America.

Six years ago, I remember walking into my Spanish class in 8th grade. I remember walking in and one of the kids I know, his name was Arnold, running around class yelling, “we’re going to war, we’re going to war, we’re going to war!” We were thirteen years old, or I was barely thirteen (my birthday is September 22). We did not understand war really. And then we watched on the news, in Ms. Murphy’s third period Spanish class, the planes flying into the towers for a second time. And it hit us. We realized that we had been attacked. We realized that something that had not happened in close to sixty years had happened again. We had been attacked.

I remember riding my bike home as fast as I possibly could to find out if anyone I knew had been killed. I live an hour and a half north of New York City on a direct train line right into Grand Central Station, the main station in Manhattan. Manhattan was a big place for a lot of the people in my city to go to work. And I wondered if anyone I knew was there. I wondered if my Grandparents, who were going into the city to get my Grandfather’s chemotherapy for the day were alright. I don’t think I have ever ridden my bike home faster. I don’t think it is possible…

On September 11, 2001, we, as a nation, came together as one. People who hated America even put flags up because they realized, even if for only a day, that we as a PEOPLE had been attacked. It had not been a move of war nor had it been a move against our government. It had been a move, a decisive attack against the PEOPLE of this nation. And it is because of that we came together. I now give thanks to those that helped to clear the rubble, to take the bodies out, and to offer help to those in need of it. I remember wishing I was five years older and able to go down. If it had happened today on this year, I would be there already helping…

We are one nation. We are a nation brought together under one basic belief and that is freedom. We are a free nation, where anyone, from the lowest class individual to the highest class individual has the chance to become something better. And that is what makes so many people hate us. And yet we are still strong. I ask for all my fellow bloggers to give only a moment of your busy work schedules to remember those that died and for those that are still dying. We are at war. We are constantly fighting terrorists. London was attacked. Madrid was attacked. We are still at war and we will be at war forever. But so long as we are fighting them, they will not be able to get to us. Remember today. Never forget.

I said in the beginning of September that it did begin a new era. I had all the intentions in the world to make Dorm Earning grow and ladies and gentlemen, it really is beginning to grow. I have getting a semi-unique theme (it’s only be downloaded once and it costs money to get it), so I am really getting rather anxious to have access to it. I am getting it for free, but that’s another story for another time. The point is, Dorm Earning is pushing ahead and there are some really good things planned for it.

Over at ProBlogger, Darren mentioned that he is looking for people to donate prizes for his blogs 3rd year birthday. Now, I thought about it for a moment or two and I have really been thinking about maybe offering him $50.00 or maybe even $100.00 as a prize. People love cash, so the money would definitely get accepted I am sure. And, with that, a link to Dorm Earning would be guaranteed. Now, on top of that, as people start to blog about the prizes, I may get more links and that is important to me. That’ll drive even more traffic. But, I want your opinions: Do you think that this is a good move for me or should I save the money for something else?

I have begun to dabble in free article services for article submissions to push traffic to Dorm Earning. I did one today on a rather nice blog (you’ll see if it you go visit JonWaraas.com) and I am excited about the potential traffic. I’ll be doing more for Jon as well as doing them for other FAS (Free Article Services). They are not that great, but if they can guarantee me some link love, I can’t deny the potential for some nice growth.

My Alexa is what I am really pleased about. The Alexa on Dorm Earning continues to drop lower and lower and that is really great. I give that, in part, to the fact that the number of posts I make has increased and I am beginning to comment more on other blogs. And, since I am giving link love to people more freely, they are beginning to reciprocate. I sent out a couple of e-mails to people about one of my articles about blogging being like football and I am looking forward to some responses and maybe some links. Hopefully, huh?

So, as you can see, Dorm Earning is beginning to get some push towards it. It is ranking decently for the keyword Make Money Online on Google (Page 4) and I am hoping to maybe get that to page 3 or even 2 if all goes according to plan, by the end of the month. Even if I don’t, the site is really beginning to grow and I may actually start to see an increase in earnings by the end of the month. Maybe I am on the right track to become a successful blogger. Who knows, huh?

Last month, I asked if the PageRank update was ever coming. And I ask that again today because it is now September 9 and it is going on a month that the update is late. Now, that is old business, but it brings about another question that I think I have an opinion for. My friend over at King Nomar talked about how he is wondering if his directories were actually a good investment. He owns a lot of them, but there’s a problem…The PR update is not coming. It’s not, I’ve decided. So, what does that mean for him?

I personally don’t think that directories are dying so much as becoming a bit different. A lot of directories made their money because of PR. A lot of us (me included) submitted to higher PR directories simply because they would help me get a better PR which in return would allow me to sell links. But, with PR not coming back, I think what will happen is people will start removing a lot of those directories. A lot of people would make about forty directories and try and get them all to PR4 and then sell links on them for cheap to maximize profits. That won’t happen anymore.

What will happen is people will make one or two directories. They will get a lot of traffic pumping to them and that is what will become the new directory. Rather than PR being important to webmasters, what will matter now is how much traffic that directory gets. And since it will be so important to push traffic to each directory, they won’t be able to run as many of them. I think that this will destroy a lot of directories, but I also think that it’ll do a lot of good for the market. The fewer the directories, the better each one will be. And that is important in my opinion.

Is AGLOCO going down the drain? I ask this because fewer and fewer people are mentioning it on their blogs or the forums. I mean, I wrote a post about some FAQS of Agloco on DormEarning, but that’s only because I don’t want it to be an idea that just dies out. I was loyal to AGLOCO back in November and as we come up on the year mark of its existence, I am still loyal.

I remember when John Chow used to constantly write about AGLOCO. Now he doesn’t even mention it. Does this mean that he is just bored of it or does this mean that he is finally fed up with them not paying us yet? That’s odd since, as far as I remember, he was a member of AllAdvantage and knows that they would pay. So, I wonder why he stopped writing about it. Is he tired of them or is there just no new information to mention about AGLOCO? One has to wonder…

Frankly, I think AGLOCO is just building up more for the next push. For every month that people use the viewbar, it is more hours and more money that AGLOCO is making which in turn will make us more money. I have learned some cool things about them, though, and it has turned my attention more towards the viewbar. Primarily, it’s that Google pays ten cents for every search when used by the viewbar. Do one hundred a month and that’s ten bucks into the AGLOCO pot. So, what I have to say is basic…I don’t think AGLOCO is gone and I think that if people start writing about it again, they may find more people signing up.

I got a lot responses over the past two days in regards to my post about Google Losing Control and I have to say, it brought about another question that I wanted to express my opinion about tonight. It brought me back to something I remembered when I was in my Economic 111 class (I believe that’s the number) and that was the knowledge of Supply and Demand. What does that have to do with Adsense? Take a look…

When a company can supply more product, the price begins to go down. If a company can’t provide as much product, the price begins to go up. Well, the same can be said with Google. As more people start to use the product, they can start to pay us less and less because if five or ten of us leave, it won’t hurt them as much as if ten of us left when they were small. Basically, because they have gained so much damn power and so many people WANT to use them, they can take more of the profits. The demand is so damn great for a good CPC network and the supply is not as great that they are in control. Just like if you wanted to buy a potato and there was a potato famine, the same goes for this.

So, how can we slap this around and potentially take back what is rightfully ours? That answer, my friends, is in how we display our ads. One of the first companies that we all sign up for when we make a website is Adsense. Why? Because anyone can get in and anyone can make ten cents a day doing it. Woopdi do! Anyways…Since so many people want to be in it, they can basically charge us more (take more of our money out) because they are providing us this means of making money. What if we just…removed the ads? What if instead of putting Adsense up, we threw an Azoogle Ads up? What if we just said, “screw you Google” and boycotted their company?

Google makes a lot of people money, but then there are the people that don’t make all that much money. There are the people out there that could be making more if Google was not quite so greedy. What do you think? Should we remove adsense from our sites? Digg did it. John Chow did it. Why shouldn’t we? The sooner we can break out of our shells and admit that, perhaps, Google is not the way to go, maybe we will start to make more money. Yes, I still put adsense up. Yes, I like the service. But, if we all banded together and just stopped servicing the ads, do you think that perhaps, just maybe, we may be able to get our voices heard?