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May 26th, 2007 by Spud Oregon
When you hear the phrase ”Make Money Online”, what’s the first site that comes to mind? Probably that of self-proclaimed dot com mogul, John Chow. Indeed, if you enter that search term into Google, you’ll find John at the top. However, look down the page a little and you’ll also see Dosh Dosh, the subject of this review.
Compare the descriptions that Google returns for each site. Now, which one would you rather read?
John is a little like my ballroom dancing teacher. He shows me that he can do it, and hopes I’ll be able to do the same. Personally, I need a little more direction than just copying random moves. If there is a way to make money online, then I want to know all about it. Spare me the biased opinions and unfounded assumptions, such as in John’s article on PayPerPost Direct. Just give me the details so I can test it for myself.
Maki from Dosh Dosh on the other hand, does exactly as his Google description suggests. His article, “PayPerPost Direct Launches: Sell Paid Reviews Outside of a Marketplace” highlights the advantages of PPP’s new service, while ultimately leaving the reader to decide whether or not it’s worth persuing. Maki’s closing paragraph is what sets his blog apart from that of John Chow:
So this goes out for free, because it’s important information that’ll probably help most of you make some extra money from your blogs. I’ll love to hear what you think of this new service from PayPerPost. Will you use it on your blog?
I’ll just take this opportunity to point out, as Maki also did, that Andy Beard has written an unbelievably in-depth review: ”PayPerPost Direct Changes The Paid Review Landscape“. This is definitely worth a read if you’re interested in getting paid to do reviews.
Maki is a Political Science and Philosophy student in Toronto, Canada. He says he manages and writes for Dosh Dosh to “empower all readers with the knowledge needed to consistently make substantial amounts of money on the internet.” Powerful words for sure, but can he back them up?
First of all, just browsing through the list of categories on Dosh Dosh gets me all excited. If this were the contents page in a “How to Make Money Online” book, I’d definitely buy it. In fact, I’d buy copies for all my Nice4Rice readers, too, but since it’s all free, I can keep my wallet in my pocket!
Maki’s ”Blog Monetization” category lists a series of articles on direct advertising sales for beginners and a fascinating article on using job boards to monetize your website in which he discusses Jobamatic.com, a system which “allows you to monetize your site’s audience by selling job listings on your own customized job board to employers who are looking for talents in a specific field.”
The depth and quality of Maki’s articles is truly remarkable considering he writes over 25 of them a month. Take for example the opening to “Six Powerful Blog Strategies that will Rapidly Increase your Affiliate Referrals“:
Imagine this scenario. You’ve just came across an amazing website which offers a lucrative affiliate program. You signed up instantly as an affiliate and are itching to promote your referral link to as many people you know.
You hook up a new thread in a forum and insert your referral link after a short pitch, perhaps you’ll also leave a few comments on a few blogs with the referral link as the URL or signature.
You might even publish a short blog post which consists of nothing but a short opener, an excerpt from the website in question and your big fat affiliate referral link.
You sit back and eagerly check your referral stats. How many people signed up? How much am I earning? You set plans for tommorrow: maybe send some emails to people you know and create a banner or button for your blog. You probably think you’ve done a good job and are guaranteed a cashcow that will give you recurring earnings. Right?
Wrong.
This is of course followed by the six must-read strategies. If you’re an affiliate, I’ll say good-bye for now, but do come back when you’ve finished reading that article, ‘coz I’m not done yet!
I’m particularly interested in Dosh Dosh’s series on Niche Blogging, which sees Maki undertake the Seven Day Niche Blog Challenge. In a nutshell, Maki is starting one new blog a day for seven days, targeting specific niches, and setting up the blogs with the sole intention of monetizing them. He says these will “serve as case studies which will allow me to develop more definitive knowledge on search engine optimization, niche blogging and monetization tactics.”
As a reader, it is fascinating to follow Maki as he teaches us the steps he goes through as he sets up these niche blogs. His post on choosing the right blog niche is a real eye-opener. Using Wikipedia to narrow your niche, SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool to assess the blog’s traffic potential, and a couple of tools from Google Adwords to determine the profit potential for each blog. Seriously, I haven’t been so hooked on a series of blog posts for a long time!
Some of my other favorite articles from Dosh Dosh are:
If you haven’t clicked away to visit Dosh Dosh yet, then you might want to give Maki some rice. It’s pretty clear that Dosh Dosh does empower its readers with the knowledge to make money online. Whether or not Maki is reaping the financial benefits of his blog-monetization expertise, I really don’t know. John Chow talks about how much money he makes online, but Maki writes about how much money you can make online.
Quick rant…
Let me clarify my gripe with John Chow. His ”make money from a blog” case study, which is what it originally was, proved that monetizing a blog for substantial profit is possible. Now, however, he should be more open to other possible revenue streams and test them in place of his current money-makers to see which are more profitable. Why not replace your ReviewMe badge with a PayPerPost Direct badge for one month? Come on, John. Isn’t this all just a case study? Worried you won’t break your previous month’s earnings? Don’t just tell us what you think won’t work, i.e. “PayPerPost Challenges ReviewMe and Fails”. Prove it! If not, we’re gonna have to give you a good ass-kicking!
Quotes from John Chow before he became “evil”:
Lately I have really been tempted to see if a personal blog can really make money with Google, and if so, how much? I think it might make an interesting case study. What do you think? Should I leave them off, or turn them on for one month and report the results? [source]
John Chow dot Com is my personal blog and making a profit from it just seems strange to me. [source]
End of rant.
Anyway, I encourage you to check out Dosh Dosh, a real guide to making money online, and make sure you give Maki some rice!
Rice: 
Posted on May 26th, 2007 in Blogging for Money.
Comments: 15
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Make way for Maki!
Eh Spud… you did some homework on JC ah?
Great job!
Cheers Bean. I’ve been reading John Chow’s blog for so long now that I remembered him starting his Adsense case study. I’ve been waiting for it to end ever since! His blog is addictive, and I enjoy reading it (see my JC review) but his, and Kumiko’s, dismissal of PPP Direct really wound me up.
I have to agree that John Chow’s review was rather disappointing. While I do agree with him mentioning that a marketplace is important, which PPP currently lacks, his overall review was far too objective. However, I don’t think John ever makes a point to be subjective in his writing.
One thought I had, (which someone actually posted in a comment on his blog, further reassuring my thought), is that he should put a PPP badge above or below his ReviewMe badge at a slightly lower price. For each sale, advertisers will spend less, and he will make more since PPP charges a much smaller fee.
Thanks Spud, for the incredibly detailed review of Dosh Dosh. I find the Nice4Rice concept of voting with backlink-powered ricebowls to be rather fascinating.
You have been stumbled.
Thanks for dropping by Maki, and thanks also for the stumble. Your site is worthy of the longest Nice4Rice review yet!
This reminds me, I need to download and learn this whole StumpleUpon thing.
Nice review on Dosh Dosh! I have been fan of both bloggers and I must say you did an interesting post here. I’ve got to hand it to you, you are good! Impressive details on the blog you just reviewed! I can’t believe that you are still not in my blog roll! An easy fix, my friend. You’re definitely headed into my roll now! More power! Mabuhay!
Thanks AnitoKid, I appreciate that. Nice avatar by the way!
Much thanks for the kind words, Spud! Funny, when Im using FireFox, I cant seem to make my comments go through! Thus, I switch to IE7, and boom! I can comment again! I remembered the positive experience I had when I read your post on DoshDosh. Thus, I read it again! Guess what, Spud! As i was reading the post, it seemed like you were here in the same room with me - talking about Dosh and his niche and all! Damn! You’re good! Really good! And as i was checking my roll, I noticed, you arent still in it! I knew I had you in there! But nevertheless, you are IN NOW! More power Spud! keep the great posts coming! And i kid you not!
Thanks again! (Typing this comment with Firefox.)
A well balanced review, which I agree with - especially in its comparisons with John Chow dot com.
Dosh Dosh really is in another league to John Chow. All we read about on his blog now is … ummm, I am not sure - all I remember are the ads which now seem to be the base of his content.
Maki has done a fantastic job at Dosh Dosh - if I could only read one blog a day, this would be the one.
Nice 4 Rice would be a close second
- Martin Reed
Bravo Spud!!!
This was an excellent review. One I’ll need to read a few times to glean all the good information out of it.
I am a new fan of Dosh Dosh and I agree with all you say here.
I stopped reading John Chow’s blog a few weeks ago.
john chow is evil but worth to read,
i learn a lot from the site.
Dosh dosh already bookmarked by me for a long time,
it is one of the greatest blog of making money online.
I consider DoshDosh one of my favorite blogs when it comes to looking for tips on making money online. I find his tips very informative and very neatly organized.
I really like how Spud made this article. he somehow pointed out one by one what I like about DoshDosh. A good one. i really think that you should also be given some rice for all your hard work.
Nice post, and getting nicer to meet Maki here. Frankly, i read JC and DD often. but i like the DD for the contents, so that i could try to do it step by step by myself. what i like best is the Prosense theme from DD and Wrong Advise, i downloaded it and i use it for my blog at http://www.thegeom.com, and i like it very much.
enough saying, thanks to both of you for making excellent articles.