Miss Gullible

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After being down for about a week the CBProAds site is up and running again and the ads seem to be quicker and cleaner. Of course this is a good thing, but I wish the company had been more up front with us before they took the site down.

CBProAds have since sent an email to members:

Hello,

We had a process of changing data centers to improve the overall performance
of our hosting architecture in the last few days.We take the responsibility
of hosting your Web site very seriously and deeply regret this interruption
in service.

At this point, we have restored all of the sites, and have confirmed that they are working properly.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

If you have any questions or concerns about this down time, please write to admin@CBproads.com.

I have decided to give them another chance, after all CBProAds have been performing well for me and has increased my website revenue. I appreciate that they have emailed everyone now, even though they should have done it before.

If you would like to check out CBProAds click here.

Since Saturday the CBProAds site has been down and I am still trying to find out why. If they were having server trouble they should have emailed everyone, which makes me think  they could have just shut up shop and made off with our money.

A couple of people have sent emails to support, but so far no reply. Apparently they reduced Premium membership to 50% cost just before the site shut down. Could this have been a way to get money together, before clearing off with it?

If it was a scam it seems a real shame. I assumed that the site was doing quite well, as people seemed to be having good results with it and it was a useful alternative to Google Adsense.

There is still a chance that they are just having site trouble, so I won’t let rip at them just yet, but I certainly don’t feel good about it. I was a Pro member and although I liked the ads they display, I have not received a payment for commissions I have earnt with them.

If you want to try emailing them their email address is: support@cbproads.com

It is unlikely that you will get a response, but if you do perhaps you could post a comment here, so that others will know too.

I have looked up the domain name on Whois to see whether I could get any other contact information, but it is registered under Proxy. It makes me wonder whether this was there plan all along?

If only it were that easy. I swear I am completely addicted to Coke, or LA Maxi Ice (a cheap diet cola) to be precise. It is my health vice. I don’t smoke or drink alcohol, yet my health is really suffering from something most people would assume is no big deal.

Perhaps this is how smokers feel about smoking. I drink at least 2 litres of diet Cola every day and increasingly when I lay down at night I feel sick. Nearly every other night I have to actually get up to be sick. Gross, I know. Whenever I feel this way my mind wanders to Coke and even the thought of it makes me feel sick. Every night I swear off it for life. However the next morning comes around, my stomach feels better and I start to drink it again. The thing is, I really like the taste and I can’t think of any other drink I could replace it with. Coke is so comforting and delicious.

So drink it, some of you may say, but I really should point out just how dangerous drinking Coke is. Here are the things in Cola that can cause you damage:

Caffeine - This is the stuff that keeps me awake at night. Sure it gives me a buzz and helps me get over that afternoon slump, but it also causes headaches, fatigue, stress, cardio problems, gastrointestinal problems and liver damage. It also affects libido (not good!)

Corn Syrup - This stuff may make the drink taste oh so sweet, but it also turns to fat easier than any other sugar and inhibits copper metabolism, which leads to destruction of connective tissue and arteries.

Aspartame - The worst culprit of all. This stuff is really damaging my health and can be found in all sorts of foods and diet drinks. It causes a whole range of health problems including blindness, depression, insomnia, seizures, nausea, hives, balding, ulcers, suicidal tendencies, ADD and Alzheimer’s and these are just a few of the side effects. These effects can show up after many years. There are even support groups for people who have suffered Aspartame poisoning.

You really should check out the Sweet Poison website to find out more about Aspartame. It has loads of really useful information. The FDA took a lot of persuading before they allowed sale of Aspartame and unfortunately most of the side effects remain a closely guarded secret. This is due to the fact that the diet industry is worth trillions of dollars and as we all know when it comes to the government, Money Talks.

Most of the illnesses can be cured by just stopping your intake of Aspartame That means avoiding diet drinks and diet products such as NutraSweet.

I am hoping now that I am armed with this knowledge I can fight my cravings for Coke. I know it sounds silly, but it is really hard to resist. I am ashamed I have let it get to this stage where my health is already suffering, but if I stop now I should get healthier. It amazes me that governments let these kind of drugs sell, but then again they will do anything for money. It just shows you really can’t trust anyone in power.

Even though their Autoincome program didn’t work for me, I am having excellent results with CBProAds on my websites. Rather than getting paid per click like Google Adsense, you get paid when someone buys a product through your link.

I have found I am making much more money through this than my Pay Per Click adverts. It is really fun logging into my Clickbank account to find I have actually made a sale or two overnight. I am pleasently surprised by CBProAds. The more traffic you have, the better for this kind of advertising, but even a relatively new site like this one is doing quite well. At least it is a way to more than cover my advertising and hosting costs.

I have a Pro Account with CBProAds, as it is inexpensive and ultimately means more profit. I think it has been worth it so far.I think CBProAds is a great advertising addition for my websites, but remember the autoincome option has not been worth it for me.

You may have read my post the other day on CBPro. It is an alternative to Google Adsense. You display ads that link to Clickbank products and then get a Clickbank revenue if someone buys a product. There is nothing wrong with that, in my opinion. If you have enough traffic and interested visitors you could end up selling some products that could themselves be useful to someone.

What I have a problem with is CBPro’s AutoIncome program. You pay with $22.50 for 100 hits or $49.50 for 250 hits to your CBPro storefront. The prices aren’t too bad, but the hits do not result in any sales, so it is a complete waste of money!

The Autoincome program page says “Make Money Without Lifting a Finger”. This is just not possible. I should have known from my previous experiences with “Automatic Income” products, but I thought I would give it a try, so that I could write an honest review. I bought 100 hits and have made 0 sales. That is a pretty good sign that it doesn’t do what it says and that makes it a scam.

The hits may be delivered, but the market for these CBPro malls and Clickbank products is incredibly over-saturated and that means people have seen it all before. They are not going to buy these products from you. If they do buy them, they will probably go direct to Clickbank and use their own affiliate code to buy.

If you want an alternative to Google Adsense you could give CBPro a try, but please, please do not fall for their AutoIncome program. You will only lose money.

You should also bear in mind that unless you upgrade to Pro membership, CBPro will take half your affiliate commission form Clickbank, so it may be better to display your own ads on your site, rather than theirs.

As you may have read previously, I have recently registered with Blogvertise. Once you register your blog you will receive offers to review websites and products. You can charge any price you like, depending on your page rank, subject of your blog and Alexa rating. I set my price low, as my blog is pretty new and I am still working on my page rank.

Today I had 13 offers to write posts on various topics, but I was surprised by how off-topic most of them were. This is a blog about scams and making money online, so I would not write about real estate or cooking. Still you can approve or deny the offers easily at Blogvertise, so it was not a problem.

I have also used Blogvertise to advertise this blog and do some link building and today I have been surfing through the blogs they have registered choosing the ones I like. I was really surprised by how many bloggers do say yes to every advertiser. Some blogs are just post after post of unrelated ads. Why would anyone want to read that?

My advice to people who want to blog for money would be to say no to any offers that are not directly of interest to your readers. If you are an advertiser using Blogvertise spend time searching for blogs related to your niche, even if they are a little more expensive.

I am not sure out of 13 offers that there is anything that would be of interest to my readers. I am about to go and sift through now. As an advertiser there are bargains to be had, with many bloggers selling posts from $4.00 (even PR5).

Use Blogvertise and other pay to blog services with caution. No one likes a sell out.

I am quite excited about this alternative to Google Adsense. It is called CBProAds and is free to sign up. It works with Clickbank and enables you to display a variety of ads and then recieve the Clickbank commisions. There are all kinds of different ads you can show, depending on your website.

CBProAds is free to join and you will be instantly approved. You can either display your ads on your website or promote your CBProAds store by whatever means you choose. You can upgrade to Pro if you wish to get even more out of it.

So what about the Automatic Income? Well you can pay CBProAds a small fee and they will send visitors directly to your store. These are quality visitors from sources such as Google Adwords. This is fantastic if you haven’t had much luck with Clickbank in the past.

So does it work? Well the jury is still out, as I have only just signed up with them. I will keep you updated and in the meantime why not set up a free account?

I have just added Chitika to my pet website and I have already generated income from it! It is very surprising as I am so used to the ultra slow results of duds (in  my opinion) like Bidvertiser. I have finally got around to removing all my Bidvertiser ads and replacing them with Chitika.

I think combined with Kontera, Chitika is an excellent alternative to Google Adsense. It works best if you have a large amount of traffic from the USA. I have roughly half of my traffic from the USA, as my site is Australian, but it still works really well. It has loads of ads, even for my niche site.

I like  the design of the ads and the fact that the visitor can search Chitika, whilst still on my pet site. I have placed the ads at the top of each page, below the heading and that way it can’t be missed. Of course it is still early days and I will give a more in-depth review of my results later on, but at this stage I would recommend it highly.

You can use Chitika with Google Adsense and other advertising programs and still get great results. It only took 2 business days for my site to be approved and I had it set up within the afternoon (my site has a lot of pages). You may be seeing Chitika on this site soon.

If you would like to check it out click here and let me know how you get on.

You may have seen up until a couple of days ago I had a Buy me a beer picture and the phrase “if you like my post please consider buying me a beer” next to it. This wordpress plugin is available by clicking here.

This is a novel way to ask for Paypal donations. Basically someone can donate to you via your site, under the guise of buying you a beer. Research shows that donations increase by 200% when people have a specific reason to donate. You can set the price at whatever you like and when someone clicks on the beer icon they will be taken to a Paypal payment page.

If you are not into alcohol you can set it to “buy me a coffee” with a coffee cup logo. I think it is a pretty good idea. You can set it so that the phrase and logo are just in your sidebar, or under every post.

I think it is more effective than a Paypal donation, but a simple donation button may get larger donations. Hmmm what to do? Well I have decided to give it a rest for now and try out the chipin.com widget (see review below)

I think the beer button adds character to the site, but I prefer Chip in, as donators can clearly see your financial goal and it gives your website more worth than the $3 a beer might cost. I think both Buymeabeer and Chipin are more effective than a simple donation button. Mind you I suppose you could explain to your readers what you are aiming for underneath your Paypal button.

Oh the Possibilities!

I happened upon this website called Chipin.com yesterday and I think what they are offering is very interesting. It is basically another donation tool that you can add to your website. Rather than people just blindly giving you donations, this tool enables people to see your financial goal and “chip in” to help you get there.

It is really easy to set up a Chipin account and then create a widget. It would be good for fundraising or charity websites, so that people can see what their donations will be used for.

As you may, or may not know my finiancial situation is pretty rocky. I have a large amount of debt that has all come about from being so blooming gullible and falling for every scam out there. So my financial goal is to pay off these debts. As you can see in the widget, if I receive any donations the bar will move along to show how far away from my goal I am. I think it is a good idea and more appealing than the usual Paypal donation button.

The payment is still made by Paypal, but it is a novel way of doing it.