Blog Review: My Quest To Make Money On The Internet

My Quest To Make Money On The Internet
http://westen30.blogspot.com

Description of site:
Martin from the South East of England describes his ongoing quest to make money using a free blog.

Appearance:
One of the standard Blogger templates with a sand colour scheme and custom £20 note header. The template has been adapted to include 3 columns.

Organisation:
On the whole neatly organised.

Navigation and Functionality:
Sidebar links and blog archive. The weekly progress reports have a dedicated link on the sidebar, so you can easily keep up to date with Martin’s progress so far.

Advertising:
Lots of advertising. This blog is monetised with Google AdSense, AdBrite, Adult Friend Finder, Commission Junction, Blogsvertise, Blogitive and MyLot. Martin also completes paid surveys (Ciao) as part of his project but obviously these don't feature on the blog apart from in the earnings reports. The ads are mainly confined to the periphery of the page, but more recently they have appeared between posts too.

Comments:
This is a requested review.

I have been following My Quest To Make Money On The Internet from the very outset so was very happy to oblige when Martin asked for this review. It's taken me a few days to get around to finishing this, so apologies for the delay. The author blogs fairly regularly, but has eased off (as have I) in the past month or so. Notwithstanding this, there is a large archive of interesting content and invaluable information.

As you'd expect for a money making blog there's lots of advertising. It isn't so bad having a page stacked with adverts when you know that is the whole purpose of the blog. What is much more offensive is when someone stacks their pages full of ads in a desperate bid to monetise third-rate content. Luckily, this blog does not fall into that category because it provides a valuable 'try before you buy' type service. Martin tests out all the different monetisation strategies, receives all the dodgy spam emails, fills in all the tiresome online registrations and reports back to his readers which schemes work and which don’t. He hasn't made a fortune yet but his perseverance has earned him just over GBP £100 (about USD $195) over the past 4 months. Another thing I like about this blog is the way Martin lends a hand to his fellow bloggers by his proactive link-exchanging and participation in 'Internet Money Makers Carnival' article sharing. Looking through the archive there's also a lot of return comment leavers, me included, and a loyal audience of readers.

The design of the site isn't a work of art, but it's practical and functional. With all the different HTML type elements the site takes a few seconds to load correctly, which some people may find off-putting. In my rating I also have to consider that some people will see My Quest as simply 'another money making blog' of which there are thousands already. Overall a good blog, which I enjoy reading, but the content of which wont appeal to everyone.

Rating:
6/10

Reviewer:
Tom