Over the course of the past several years, the internet as we know it has been evolving. As someone who interacts with marketers, small business owners and news sources on a daily basis, I can tell you that there is one clear trend: MOBILE!

As more and more individuals pick up smartphones (20% annual growth rates have been downright common from the major providers according to Gartner Research) the web will naturally evolve to a state where users are checking websites on the go at all times. As you can see from the image above… my readers here at TheNetFool.com have grown to almost 2% of all views (which is hundreds of users each week!). This may not seem like a lot, but at the start of the year this number was almost zero. The way I see it, this mobile trend is real and you need to climb on the bandwagon!

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Recently, I had a huge burst of traffic on tailwinds coming in from one website in particular. The website is called “Youngest Blogger,” and it is one of many ranking websites for the best bloggers on the internet. This one features a list of bloggers under the age of 18, so in general these bloggers are very much the overachiever type.

I’m not under the age of 18.

This is a disclaimer, haha, because what I decided to do was literally trick the system to see what would happen. The downside? Five seconds of my life lost, and I would probably be blocked from a list that I could never get on in the first place. The upside? My fifteen minutes of fame! Hmmm… well it doesn’t take a Quantitative Risk Analyst to understand that the upside FAR outweighs the downside risk.

What I Did to Exploit Huge Traffic

Okay, so I come across a website that is claiming to rank the “top bloggers under 18″… and it sounds like something I would be interested in. Naturally, because I am over the age of 18, this would be a website that I just passed by. However, there is in fact a manual submission system in place that allows you to enter your age and website on my own. (evil thoughts)

Hmm… so they are going to allow me to choose my own age, eh? Excellent. I think that I will be 15 years old today. This is exactly what I did after checking with the terms of service. While I am sure that Carl O’Cab (the owner) would have loved for me to only support accurate age information, the last time I checked, I am not legally bound to give away my birth date to strangers. At any rate, the worst that can happen is being banned from the website… which I could care less about if I have my link placed, right?

This system is actually still in place, and the owner Carl O’Cab obviously doesn’t check through submissions… because I submitted theNetFool.com as being my blog, run by a 15 year old. It got approved quickly, and stayed in the #1 slot for a few weeks… taking traffic and subscribers along with it. I got around 50 hits a day from this site alone (in its prime). I’m sure that the website isn’t doing as well as it was when it first came out… but traffic is traffic, and it took me 5 seconds to rake in hundreds of unique visitors.

What is Unethical, and What is Just Plain Smart?

So this entire experiment begs the question… was I being completely unethical to do something like this, or just a bit smarter than your average bear? This is debatable, but I like to think that I am a very ethical candidate. So, yes, I cheated the YoungestBlogger.com system and gained a #1 ranking despite the fact that I was nowhere near the age of 15 anytime recently. Some might applaud this, and some might frown upon it. At any rate, this is something that I knew would never hurt anyone… and at bare minimum would keep ol’ Carl on his toes so others don’t do this with malicious intent.

If I was REALLY smart, I would have done this with an affiliate blogging website to get traffic to that location fast and easy. Maybe you will go and do this after reading? But I encourage you to refrain from doing so. This was more of an experiment on my part to see whether or not a simple submission could benefit my website in a major way.

My conclusion? Always, and I mean always, shoot for the win in situations like these. If you come across a ranking system that allows for manual submissions… why not give it a shot? What’s the least that can happen. By maintaining the risk/reward understanding, you can run a much more successful blog. I’m interested to know where your stance is on the issue… was it unethical, or smart? You be the judge.

-The Net Fool

Disclaimer: This post was meant as an example case, and nothing against Carl O’Cab, who runs a terrific service which I encourage you to use ethically and legally

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It isn’t every day that you get an spam email in your inbox… that is actually useful. When I sift through my email inbox, I typically delete the random newsletter items that come in from the likes of Best Buy and Wal-mart. However, earlier this month I got one of the most clever inbox items from one company that DID have a good Christmas retail season… Amazon.com!

Is it possible to use a message to your advantage, that was only sent out to try and get you to buy something? I thought that it was pretty amusing that Amazon.com would put out a newsletter with the “Top New Year’s Resolutions.” Essentially, this was a top ten list that went out to get consumers to buy into the latest fads that will drive 2009. For affiliate marketers, this is a virtual gold mine of information from the people that know best. Now, we can use what was once a spam message to bring in tons of affiliate marketing cash down the road.

The Top Ten Consumer Trends of 2009

I want to take this post to offer examples of how you can use a “top ten” listing in your favor to predict trends and stay ahead of the curve in affiliate marketing. There are many ways to have success in the internet marketing realm, and having the most demanded product before anyone else is a great start. Here are some trends, as predicted by Amazon.com, that should drive the consumer sector over the next year. You can follow along with the actual excerpt on the left-hand side.

1. Lose Weight
Weight loss is going to continue to be a big trend over the next year or so (at minimum), so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to try out some offers here. The consumer brand is discouraging anything with sugar in it, so the fitness trend probably won’t be stopping any time soon. Try your hand at some offers in the “Diet” or “Weight Loss” niche.

2. Get Your Finances in Order
It’s tax season AND we are in a recession… sounds like a pretty good time for you to cash in on the financial services industry. I would suggest sticking to names like “Quicken” and “TaxCut” to rake in money from people filing taxes this spring. Also, you could look into the “Mortgage” or other loan niche for families looking for help online.

3. Go Greener
Many affiliate networks now have entire portions of their websites devoted to the “Green” theme that has hit the nation. You can promote products like green tea, or even the “health” realm. It’s easy to go green, and you can really promote this one many ways.

4. Curb Your Vices
Many people seek out “Self-Help” related products… looking for help to quit smoking, drinking, gambling or just bad habits. I would actually recommend using the Amazon Partner Network to promote their own self-help books, rather than using a standard affiliate network.

5. Get In Shape
Fitness and health are HUGE areas to be exploited now. Plus, many consumers have been drawn into the “Yoga” niche… and there are certainly a ton of products that can be used here. Additionally, the “Diet” area still applies to those looking to get in shape… since everyone is a sucker for a shortcut. Try making a fitness blog to promote these!

6. Relax More
This is a trend that I thought was surprising, but could definitely see picking up traction in a highly stressful world. You could use “Yoga” for this, but an even better idea might be to use actual products from the Amazon Partner Network or seek out some kind of “Music” store that specializes in classical, jazz or alternative songs.

7. Pursue a New Career
The job market is rough, so people are looking to improve themselves. You can actually create entire sites nowadays by using a “Job Board” on your website. An easier path might be to look into the “Financial” niche or try your hand at “Business Opportunities” (frequently “Biz Opps”).

8. Upgrade Your Technology
People like to have the latest gadgets and gizmos, so you can mark up a gain on this one by turning your focus to “Electronics,” “Entertainment” and even “Retail.” Cable networks like the Disk Network are hot right now, so look into that option!

9. Organize and Optimize
From file folders to feng shui, and everything in between… people love to feel organized and on top of their game. Again, this will tie into the “Tax services” niche very well right now, and “Home Related” might be the perfect fit for the more year-round trade.

10. Start a New Hobby
People always like to branch out and find a new hobby of their liking. In this area, it could be fun to tap into “Gardening”… as the barriers to entry are pretty low in my opinion. Additionally, “Travel” and “Sports” can be excellent hobbies that people will trend toward i ntheir spare time (which we have a lot of right now).

Bottom Line: When people “resolve” to do something, they will more than typically be planning on the long haul. Because of this, January through March is an excellent time to catch people that buy products to help them through their resolutions. After all, there’s nothing like having an expense on the books to motivate you to get going!

-The Net Fool

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It’s official!

While you were away, Google brought webmasters their own Christmas present in the form of the Fourth Quarter 2008 PageRank Update! Many bloggers, marketers and web geeks alike wait for Google PageRank (“PR”) updates religiously, and for good reason. A high PR can send your blog to the top of search engine rankings, get you much more easily indexed, and help you rake in a lot more dough from advertisers who like to see high numbers. Don’t let anyone tell you that PageRank ain’t important, because it can really drive your website’s success.

So what happened to me? This round of Google PageRank updates was pretty solid overall. TheNetFool.com got upgraded from a PR 3 to a PR 4… though I already had a PR 4 back in May of 2008, before getting downgraded to a PR 3 in the fall. At any rate, that is solid news. On related websites, BullishBankers.com (my stock market community) received the bump up from a PR 3 to a PR 4… not bad for a website that’s only been around for 6 months. During the Q2 PageRank Updates, I reviewed the new ratings and how I felt they were relative to what I felt these blogs deserved. Today, we redo this process with 100 of the top MMO blogs on the internet.

The Net Fool’s Top 100 MMO “Fair Value” Rankings

Because of the constant ranting on how “unfair” Google’s Pagerank service is, I decided to pull from the top 100 “Make Money Online” websites on the internet (according to the leading Top 100 list), and put the new PR rankings to the test. Below, you will find a list of these blogs, their new Pagerank as of December 31st 2008, and their The Net Fool “Fair Value” ranking. You can call this a little “surprise” for Google… just thanking them for the PR upgrade by throwing 100+ links around!

Q4 2008 The Net Fool’s “Fair Value” Pagerank Analysis

Whew! That’s one heck of a list, eh? Again, if your site is listed here as “overvalued” it doesn’t mean that I don’t like you… it’s simply an indication that I feel you got a nicer pagerank than I feel your site has shown. This is, actually, quite a compliment for your ability to break past Google’s defenses!

The Results

It seems that in the 4th Quarter PageRank update, Google came out with a literal “gift” to many bloggers. I have found that the update was overall “soft” in that some less-than-stellar blogs were given extraordinarily high PRs to play with. Unfortunately, many of the solid blogs that I felt deserved higher marks were ripped off by the system this time around. This is confirmed in the numbers from this test sample:

• Appropriately Valued: 48%
• OVERvalued: 31%
• UNDERvalued: 21%

The Verdict

In all, we have much fewer blogs undervalued now in Q4 than in the Q2 update, when over 35% of blogs were undervalued. Accordingly, as essentially half of the blogs were again accuratly pageranked, we had a large amount of blogs that were overvalued (31%) compared to the measily 12.5% overvalued from the second quarter. Looking objectively at this, and assuming that I judged “fairness” in the same way, it looks like many bloggers got one heck of a gift this quarter!

Bottom Line: Google seemed to have once again done a fair job in pageranking the websites across the blogosphere. When you have around 50% of blogs appropriately valued, even subjectively speaking, twice in a row… you know that you have a pretty good system all things considered. There were many exceptions to the rule, but in general it seems like PageRank is actually a decent option to be objective.

-The Net Fool

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How many people could you name off the top of your head that have great looking websites and blogs? Probably quite a few!

My second question is how many of these people actually write solid content?
About half.

This disturbing fact has gotten me flustered over the course of blogging up to this point, I’m not going to hide that fact at all. In fact, it seems that when I advise people about starting their first blog… or even how to make money online in general… the problem is not how you are doing it… but your ability to project a professional appearance! I want to talk to you today about how to build a blogging empire online simply by deceiving your users, simply because so many people have been able to do this. Sometimes, it’s not about the content that you write, but how well it is received on the other end.

Deception? What Are You Talking About?

That’s right ladies and gentlemen, you are being duped by many bloggers into the belief that because they are putting up content… they are the “real deal.” In fact, it stretches far beyond this. While some people simply make blogs on generic-looking templates that have some level of credibility… but never really get over that bump… quite a few bloggers go the extra mile and order custom templates that make them seem downright immaculate. Once a blogger orders a custom template and you visit their blog, simply seeing their personalized settings immediately triggers in your brain the notion that “oh, they have a custom built blog… they must be good… I think I’ll subscribe!” Let’s take a look at an example:

Which blog would you subscribe to?

If I were to show you the two websites here, you would probably think I was crazy if I were to recommend you actually subscribe to the second one… right? Well as it turns out, the one on the left is theNetFool.com. The one on the right… is theNetFool.com.

For about 4 months I operated under terrible conditions with around 20 RSS subscribers (including myself) at the peak. Why? Simply because my design was generic. I decided to invest a few hundred in a professional template… and boom! My quality of work didn’t go up at all, yet my RSS subscriber chart was off to the races! The bottom line here is that you could be the best blogger in the world with money-making ideas that will feed a family. If you cannot relay your information on a professional-looking website, you will never succeed.

Sounds Simple Enough… What’s Wrong Then?

I consider myself to be a writer that gives you useful information and a reason to read. I don’t trap anyone into scam deals, and I sure as heck don’t waste your time with posts about my personal life, my next contest or even constant advertising. The problem is that for the same reasons that you would rather choose blog LEFT over blog RIGHT are the reasons that there are so many success stories out there that don’t deserve it. It’s not your fault, it is human nature to trend toward the aesthetically pleasing, eh?

No, I am not going to name names… that wouldn’t be fair or very nice of me. I like to be constructive, not destructive. Because of this, I want to challenge you to go through your list of “favorite blogs” and really take a look at the content. Have a quick glance at the archives and see if they are still writing interesting content! Chances are… if it is a fashionable blog, they are giving you about as much information as (insert metaphor here). I could run off a list of bloggers 20+ in length that I know personally, that only exist because they have “cool” looking blogs that people subscribe to because they associate good looks with good content.

Using Deception to Your Advantage!

Let’s turn it around, eh? Perhaps you are a fantastic writer and you are still using a “premium WP theme” that is completely free for anyone to download. A quick news-flash to these “blogging hopefulls:” anything “free” is by definition not premium. In fact, if I visit your website and I see a design that I have seen somewhere else, I am already half discrediting your authority in my mind! It’s sad, but it’s entirely true! If you want to be a successful blogger in a tough niche, one thing that you absolutely need is a customized theme… or at bare minimum a fancy logo that will designate you from the pack. Heck, you can grab an awesome logo for under $20 if you set up an auction on GetAFreelancer.com, DigitalPoint or WarriorForum.

Another great tip is to create a mascot for your blog. With me, I represented myself in a cartoon rendered version. There are many professional cartoonists out there on the internet just waiting for you to drop a few bucks in their direction. Think about it this way, the cost of an RSS subscriber is somewhere around $10-$18 as estimated by comparable blog sales in the past. A new mascot will run you anywhere from $40 to $100 depending on the quality of work you choose. Because of this, any cost you take on the front end will be almost immediately recovered by an essentially automatic RSS boost.

Bottom Line: You NEED to upgrade your blog to stay competitive! With the amount of bloggers that run around with professional designs these days (and not much else), you need to be able to make a name for yourself with a flashy new design, new logo or a new mascot for your blog. Never sacrifice your content to put out what only has the appearance of professionalism, but remember that it’s not always what you write… but how you write it!

-The Net Fool

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