Now I’m sure a lot of you guys are wondering why I’m writing about Oprah’s big give winner on this ‘make money online’ blog.  Well, it’s simple.  Oprah’s big give winner got $1 million dollars and even the runner-ups got $100,000 each.  Now, you might be thinking, “well, who cares? What’s that have to do with making money online?”  Pay attention and I will explain.

Let’s go over the details of Oprah’s big give finale.  Basically, there were three contestants that were given a challenge of creating a “Big Give” in Chicago with absolutely no money at all.  The three contestants - Stephen Paletta, Cameron Johnson and Brandi Milloy - worked as a team and it paid off for them.  Literally.

Stephen Paletta connected with a friend at the Chicago Hope Academy.  Cameron Johnson contacted the Blue Man Group for the students of the Chicago Hope Academy and Brandy Milloy convinced an executive chef to give private cooking lessons.

All of them participated to help each other as a team as well as help students of the Chicago Hope Academy.  Stephen Paletta was awarded the grand prize of $1 million dollars while Cameron Johnson and Brandy Milloy got $100,000 each.  And even the previously eliminated contestants were awarded with $30,000 each.

Again, how does that relate to making money online or blogging?  Well, first, you obviously see potential and how much money a person could end up with through hard work and dedication.  Not only that, but to make money online or blog, you need to have help in one way or another, right?

Now look at how much the contestants supported each other even though they were competing against one another.  So, when it comes to blogging and making money online, you should look at your competition more like allies and all of you guys will be rewarded at the end.  Of course, the reward will always vary but at least every who helped were rewarded.  Just look at the eliminated contestants, they were still given money!

Also, the more you help others, the bigger the reward will be.  That doesn’t necessarily mean the more money you will make, but it could be getting a bigger readership, more RSS Feeds subscribers, more traffic, meeting and forming friendships.

So, at the end of the day, we all need help in some sort of help and support.  And at the end, we will all be rewarded accordingly.  Like I always said, “help me help you!”

And if Oprah, Stephen Paletta, Cameron Johnson or Brandi Milloy is actually reading this, I would appreciate some “Big Give”, you could donate to one of my charities, the “Jason Fund.”

This is a given - you will lose readers and you will lose RSS Feed subscribers, but how soon will that happen? When my current contest is over, will you unsubscribe the next day?

It’s a given that there will be people who will immediately unsubscribe, and I definitely understand if someone does not like my content, but would you go through the entire hassle simply to enter a contest?

I was talking with Maki of Doshdosh (on Twitter) briefly about contests and he mentions “Contests are useful once in a while but my experience is that putting effort to teach/help others matters a lot more for readership.” In addition, he adds “If you don’t put effort to write excellent content, gigantic contests or hours spent doing social media ain’t gonna help. Remember that!”

Yes, I will remember that. And I’m sure a lot of you guys reading this should to. You can promote and market your blog/content all you want and get tons of readers and visitors, but it’s your content that keeps them coming back.

Of course, Maki has never held a single contest on Doshdosh.com and look at how well he’s done. He is an A-lister, he writes great articles, he’s well-known and I’m sure he makes a pretty penny on top of that. And to add to my ass-kissing, I am one of his 14,821 subscribers!

I’m not going to compare my posts but I do feel as though my content is good enough and I hope its good enough for people entering my contest to stay subscribed. I use contests as a way of pushing that daily reader to actually come back once a day rather than once a week. I feel it’s more of an incentive to get them participating but I don’t want to force anything on people.

I know a lot of people who sign up to peoples RSS Feeds simply for contests, and not less than a day after the winners are announced, they unsubscribe - even if they are one of the winners! So, are you one of those types of people?

Now, don’t get me wrong, I have unsubscribed to RSS feeds before, but then again, I don’t normally subscribe simply because of a contest. I subscribe because of the content.

So, if you subscribed strictly for the contest, I’ll know exactly who you are within a week after the contest is over. And I will have future contests so I’ll see if you re-subscribe or not.

And for those people who subscribed to my RSS Feeds for the contest but actually like my content, I appreciate it. And if you subscribed to my RSS Feeds just because you like my content before any contests I have ever held, you are one of a kind and I’ll find some way to thank you!

I’ll be the first to kick start this conversation because I have a feeling you’ll be seeing similar posts discussing Alexa.com’s “new ranking” system on every other blog for the next week or so. But are these new rankings going to better determine how much traffic a site gets? Well, my answer is still “no.”

Based on Alexa’s announcement page, they state things like “Alexa rankings are now based on more sources of data to give a better indicator of website popularity” and “The rankings are now an even better indication of website popularity due to new and improved algorithms.”

Yet, they do not state what those “better indicators” are, all they state is “We won’t tell any secrets just yet, but you can expect to see new features rolled out over the coming weeks and months.” That basically tells me nothing - nothing at all! Well, maybe one thing - that I’m sure those die-hard Alexa oriented webmasters and bloggers will be pissed if they are no longer in the Top 100k and they spent months, if not years, trying to get there.

And I would hate to think about those people who was striving to make it into the Top 100k for months to get pushed back even further. Luckily, most of us don’t care about Alexa ratings… but there are still some people who surround themselves with the inaccurate Alexa ratings.

How that will affect you?

Well, let’s say that a lot of places, especially Ad companies, use Alexa as a way of describing a websites traffic and now that they have changed their ranking system does that mean all these companies that rely on it will change theirs accordingly? Probably not. So, if you are no longer in the Top 100k, I think you’re going to be screwed. It’s almost like what happened when Google dropped a lot of peoples’ pageranks.

And I’m sure a lot of you guys know 45n5’s Top 100 Money Making Blogs, well, I wonder how the new Alexa ratings are going to change that whole entire list. Well, with the except of probably the top 5-10 blogs.

Also, all those posts from bloggers on “How to get in to Top 100K in Alexa” will probably go down the drain now, huh? Because I can guarantee you that more than half of those blogs are no longer in the top 100K… and sure enough, most of those blogs shouldn’t have been there to begin with!

How did it affect me personally?

Well, it seems this blog was knocked from 80,000 to 260,000+ and honestly, I’m not mad. I knew I didn’t deserve to be in the top 100k, at least not right now. But I’m just glad that most other blogs, especially people who rely on Entrecard for all their traffic, could pushed back even further.

The interesting part, is that my other blog DatCurious.com which I updated once within the past 3-4 weeks has a higher ranking than this blog. Here’s the thing, I think I get a lot more organic search engine traffic to that site than on here, so that does mean search engine traffic (most people who do not have the Alexa toolbar installed) will account for part of the rating system? We’ll see, I guess.

The Good News?

Now instead of seeing people articially decrease their Alexa ratings, supposedly they won’t be able to. For instance, all those Entrecard users who dedicate their life to drop and run or chain drop to articially decrease their Alexa ratings, hopefully with this new system, it can’t be gamed.

Well, I’m sure someone will crack it and start gaming the system soon enough!

So with the new changes to Alexa, do you think it will be better? More accurate? Or do you think it’s still going to be inaccurate?

Here we are again with another contest, but I decided not to hold it in the month of March because there were so many going on that my contest might get overlooked! So, I’m going to introduce to you guys the “Get Traffic” contest! You can potentially get your blog/site viewed by over 310,000 unique visitors and that’s not even including RSS Feed subscribers!

First of all, we all know if you want to make money online you’re going to need traffic, right? I always emphasize how important traffic is so that’s why I decided to put together this contest. So, what’s going to be featured? Well, let’s go over the prizes!

I know this post is pretty long but I had to include people’s traffic stats so you’ll know how much these prizes are actually worth!

The Prizes

Get your site reviewed on these big blogs for GREAT exposure:

Review on Carlocab.com (worth $80) – Well known as the “kidblogger” in the Blogosphere, this current 14-year-old has jumped past everybody in search engines for the “Make Money Online” keywords. A very modest young man who knows more about making money online than most people can imagine.Site stats:
Unique visitors/pageviews a month: 38,000+ unique visitors and 90,000+ pageviews
Alexa: 35,802
Technorati: 5,683
RSS Feed Subscribers: 1,105
Google Pagerank: 4

Review on Garryconn.com (worth $25 because winner must write own post) – Garry is a crazy online entrepreneur with crazy tactics, interesting and informative posts and he knows what he is doing. I mean, he makes a living making money from his blog and he can definitely teach you a thing or two! (Um, for the record, I don’t think he’s really crazy. For some reason I’ve been saying that since I bought a very cheap ad spot on his blog. Oh yeah, I called him crazy because he was selling ad spots for like $5.95 a month!)

“Winner must write the post and talk directly with the blogs readers.”

Site Stats:
Unique visitors/pageviews a month: 25,567 unique visitors and N/A pageviews
Alexa: 59,437
Technorati: 7,440
RSS Feed Subscribers: 784
Google Pagerank: 4

Review on Theuniversitykid.com (worth $60) – Yet another young entrepreneur that knows his way around the internet, Jason, also known widely as “The University Kid” has great potential and checking out his blog you can clearly see that!

Site stats:
Unique visitors/pageviews a month: 23,088 unique visitors and 34,048 pageviews
Alexa: 63,134
Technorati: 11,842
RSS Feed Subscribers: 374
Google Pagerank: 3

Review on Theblogentrepreneur.com (worth $50) – Bill brings you the real deal when it comes to blogging and the truth. And sometimes the truth is harsh and he’ll be the first to express that. Though, I’m sure his review of your site will be just fine!

Site stats:
Unique visitors/pageviews a month: 15,426 unique visitors and 33,087 pageviews
Alexa: 69,566
Technorati: 61,368
RSS Feed Subscribers: 230+
Google Pagerank: 2 (predicted 5)

Review on Bloggernoob.com (worth $25) – Though, he’s widely known as a “Blogger Noob” he is definitely far from that. He should be called something opposite of a noob, like old? Lol… well, he definitely shows people in the “making money online” niche that it is certainly capable of doing!

Site stats:
Unique visitors/pageviews a month: 12,520 unique visitors and 25,559 pageviews
Alexa: 46,843
Technorati: 16,889
RSS Feed Subscribers: 289
Google Pagerank: n/a

Review on Blogaboutyourblog (worth $50) – Written by yours truly! Now Matthew of BAYB knows what he is doing, I mean, he manages like 5840392549305234 blogs. Then on top of that, I’ll be writing your review on BAYB, man, can you beat that? I mean, have you seen my reviews? Well, okay, have you seen Matthew’s blog?

Site stats:
Unique visitors/pageviews a month: 16,792 unique visitors and 29,625 pageviews
Alexa: 53,307
Technorati: 7,785
RSS Feed Subscribers: 591
Google Pagerank: 3

Review on Piggybankpie.com – Patrick, my go-to guy when I need guest posting or writing services questions answered. Not only has he taken his blog from nothing to something in such a short time, you will see his guest posts on tons of A-list blogs and be like “damn, this guys everywhere!”

Site stats:
Unique visitors/pageviews a month: 17,021 unique visitors and 23,000+ pageviews
Alexa: 188,586
Technorati: 57,613
RSS Feed Subscribers: N/A
Google Pagerank: 3

Some GREAT Ad spots:

One Month 125×125 Ad spot on Jonathanvolk.com (worth $40) – Jonathan Volk, if you never heard of this guy, well, I guarantee you’ll know him soon enough! And if you’re an affiliate marketer I’m sure you already know him. I mean, it’s hard overlooking a Super Affiliate Marketer making close to $80,000 a month!

Site Stats:
Unique visitors/pageviews a month: According to Jonathan, “a LOT!” Lol! (I told you I would put that!) But I think he gets over 25,000 unique visitors a month.
Alexa: 44,532
Technorati: 26,192
RSS Feed Subscribers: 842
Google Pagerank: 2

One Month 125×125 Ad Spot on Winningtheweb.com (worth $50) – I would say Gyutae Park is slowly but surely “Winning the Web” but I’d be wrong… he’s winning the web over quick as hell! That just says something about his marketing knowledge and he shares that with you on his blog. I’m sure a lot of you guys already know him from his crazy contests but Gyutae was nice enough to contribute as a sponsor to my contest! A marketing genius as well as a down-to-earth helpful guy!Of course, this contest seems like nothing compared to his, huh? Lol!

Site stats:
Unique visitors/pageviews a month: 37,000+ unique visitors
Alexa: 47,065
Technorati: 7,715
RSS Feed Subscribers: 843
Google Pagerank: 3

One Month 125×125 Ad Spot and Footnote Ad on Garryconn.com (worth $10.95 due to his crazy discounted rates) – Garry was kind enough to supply us with a sponsored post and ad spots. Now do I have to repeat his site stats? Why not!

Site stats:
Unique visitors/pageviews a month: 25,567 unique visitors and N/A pageviews
Alexa: 59,437
Technorati: 7,440
RSS Feed Subscribers: 784
Google Pagerank: 4

Two Months 125×125 Ad Spot on Etienneteo.com (worth $60) – Etienne is a blogger who continues to prove everyone wrong about making money through Blogger’s blogging platform. If you’re not impressed, you should see how much he makes from his blog!Site stats:
Unique visitors/pageviews a month: 13,000+ Unique Visitors and 20,000+ Pageviews
Alexa: 113,022
Technorati: 12,783
RSS Feed Subscribers: 524
Google Pagerank: 2

One Month 125×125 Ad Spot on Yimto.com (worth $20) - Tim is an up and coming affiliated marketer with some great affiliated makreting strategies you’d be interested in. He actually doesn’t really have ads on his blog so the winner will get even more attention from this prize!Site stats:
Unique visitors/pageviews a month: 15,000+ unique visitors
Alexa: 53,777
Technorati: 7,179
RSS Feed Subscribers: N/A
Google Pagerank: 2

One Month Text Link on Adesblog.com (worth $90) – Abdylas a.k.a. Ades is an internet marketer who has an impressive resume under his belt. Not only does he maintain a few different sites that receive hundreds of thousands of unique visitors a month but he also develops various products for the internet, computers, etc. I mean, he quit his well paying job a few years back to focus on his personal projects. I can tell you he’s probably getting paid more now too!Site stats:
Unique visitors/pageviews a month: 57,000+ Unique Visitors and 130,000 Pageviews
Alexa: 68,102
Technorati: 12,463
RSS Feed Subscribers: 868
Google Pagerank: 3

One Month 125×125 on DatMoney.com (worth $20) – Now, I know you guys aren’t really impressed with advertising on DatMoney but let’s hope this contest will help out a lot!

Other/Miscellaneous Prizes:

Pingo.com – One of the most well-known phone card websites out there has generously donated 50 $5 phone cards and I’m giving them out to the first 50 who enters this contest! Not only will the first 50 get $5 but if you sign up for FREE, you’ll Get $15 in International Calls for FREE Now! Hey, if you’re not in the U.S., this is your chance to call me for FREE!

Blogpremiere.com/forum - Jason of Blogpremiere.com/forum has decided to generously contribute his eBook to everyone that enters! (Max. 1,000 people) I can’t even put a price on this eBook! His eBook is titled “Seven Tips to Live a Better Life.” You guys should be glad he’s so generous… so glad you guys should sign up for his forum!

Here’s how the Contest Will Run:

Now you’ve seen how much traffic you could possibly get to your site, I know it will help everyone… and I mean EVERYONE!

Similar to Gyutae’s Winning the Web’s “Craziest Internet Marketing Contest”, you will get many different chances of entering, and by performing certain actions you’ll gain more entries. Though, I’ll probably have easier ways to gain more entries but these clues will only be made available to my RSS Feed subscribers so I’d suggest you guys sign up!

How to Gain Entries:

1. Blog about DatMoney’s contest, link to the contest page and copy and paste and include my sponsors’ links. The links are below (worth 10 entries):

DatMoney.com
Carlocab.com
Garryconn.com
Theuniversitykid.com
Theblogentrepreneur.com
Bloggernoob.com
Blogaboutyourblog.com
Piggybankpie.com
Jonathanvolk.com
Winningtheweb.com
Etienneteo.com
Yimto.com
Adesblog.com
Blogpremiere.com/forum

2. Subscribe to my RSS Feeds by e-mail (worth 5 points) – Now I know a lot of you guys would prefer not to subscribe via e-mail and that’s fine, but I would definitely subscribe to my RSS Feeds in general because I’ll be dropping clues on how to get additional entries and I’ll also be announcing winners that way. (Please note: If you are already subscribed via e-mail, you’re already entered in this contest! Just make to check for additional clues and to see if you won!)

3. For every 2 comments made from now through the end of the contest (May 9th) you will get (1 entry). Of course, there will be a max limit of 6 comments/3 entries per day.

Now I know it’s not a requirement to subscribe to my RSS Feeds but I would suggest doing so because 1.) That’s how I will announce the winners, and 2.) I will give additional ways of gaining entries to the contest. It’ll be extremely easy ones… trust me! Just make sure you use the same e-mail/website to enter!

Also, this is not a requirement but please check out my sponsors’ sites, I guarantee you will not be disappointed! (Disclaimer: You cannot hold me responsible, I’m actually “Guaranteeing” that I won’t be disappointed. We are all different people with different opinions. Oh, and LOL!)

And don’t worry, everyone is a winner!

But if you don’t happen to win one of the reviews or ad spots, don’t worry, every single of one of these sites are definitely worth the price to advertise or purchase a review from. I’m not going to lie; I’m going to be purchasing a few myself! I mean, look at those stats! Check out their blogs for yourself, I was impressed and I bet you will be too!

The contest will end Friday, May 9th at midnight eastern time. Winners will be chosen at random the following day and if prizes are not claimed, DatMoney.com will be accepting the award on their behalf!

Good Luck! I mean, you have a chance of 310,000+ unique visitors possibly checking out your site! Why would you want to miss out on that?

Yes, I’m talking to you Mr/Mrs. Big Time, your blog just isn’t the same as it once was. I understand times have changed, your pockets have gotten deeper and your readership has grown but you and your blog just isn’t the same!

Was it the time you spent trying to attract new readers that made you change? Was it the money that kept flowing in that made you forget why you was blogging to begin with? Was it the fact that you just didn’t have the same mindset and writing that your readers once craved for?

Maybe it was the fact that you started caring more about your stats (Google Pagerank, Alexa, RSS Feed subscribers, etc) than your loyal readers?

Well, we, as readers, are the people who make you who you are and make your blog successful. Without your readers, you would have nothing. Did you forget that?

I’m sure a simple reply would be “well, this is my blog, if you don’t like it, then screw you!” That may be true, but if all of us decided that we didn’t like it then who would really be the person who’d be screwed? Not me, as your reader.

Yes, I have unsubscribed to your RSS Feeds. Yes, I do not visit your blog as much as I once did. And yes, you just don’t care about us (your readers) like you once did when you had a fan base less than the number of fingers on your hand.

Your blog just isn’t the same as it once way and neither are you.

I’m sure I’m not the only person who feels this way. I’m sure a lot of you guys are probably wondering who I’m talking about and which blog? Well, it doesn’t matter on the specific person(s) that I’m talking about, but I’m sure every single one of us feels like this about a blog they no longer are a huge fan of anymore.

If there is a specific blog you feel just isn’t the same as when you first started reading them, which one is it?

Basically, I feel as though I give back to my readers and fellow bloggers but I’m sure not everyone feels that way. I see a bunch of people unsubscribing to my RSS Feeds and it’s understandable but am I one of those people who just isn’t the same as I once was when you first met me? Has my blog changed that much? If so, I hope someone will come up and tell me.

Anyways, I just had to get that off my chest because I do not want to become one of those types of people I just mentioned. If you guys ever notice, please feel free to kick me in the nuts or something.

By the way, I was going to post the contest today but I will wait for Monday to start the week with a bang!