How would you monetize an “Auto Blog”? 5 Comments to continue!
Monday, May 18th, 2009Hey kids – this is where you have to weigh in with your thoughts and ideas before I go any further. It takes 5 comments from readers before I make a post on how I monetize my auto blogs…. and I’ll even give away goodies if we get over 10 comments. (think a script or tool or something super secret but helpful).
You might call an auto blog a splog, or a scraped blog. Just throw your ideas out there on how to monetize something that gets traffic but has no real “UNIQUE” or quality content.
Popularity: 20% [?]
trevd says:
May 18th, 2009
6:33 pm
I’m not sure how I would monetize an auto blog. Since I just run the couple I run for links, I’ve never tried to monetize them.
I’ve read that some people do some cookie stuffing through auto blogs, but that isn’t something I’m in to.
myWordPress.com says:
May 18th, 2009
6:37 pm
Google Adsense is the first at most obvious answer, but that is a bad way to go, since the account would be closed very quickly.
CPM banners?
Cookie stuffing?
Online Sports Betting says:
May 18th, 2009
6:39 pm
Heck, I’d like to read more. Though I’m really skeptical if I have the resources to make an splog setup worthwhile.
admin says:
May 18th, 2009
6:43 pm
@online Sports — I’ll chime in here before the 5 comments just because you were so darn fast at posting (you 3 must be getting rss alerts). You don’t need HUGE resources to set up a small autoblog empire. A single VPS server with a few IP’s added on could handle about a hundred of them. If you find that the server starts bogging down remove some or stop posting to them as often.
(btw if it’s the domain costs that stop you – you can always do subdomains)
Thanks for reading and responding guys – since my comment doesn’t count we are still have a few to go and it’s only been 10 minutes
fsudirectory says:
May 18th, 2009
6:54 pm
I would try to either 1) create my own or 2) find morphing feeds that can be changed to include the keywords im targeting and maybe interject a post every few auto posts to add some unique content and get people to click around.
Include some popups (dhtml overlays) about a special bargain, or deal if you signup (depends what you are promoting)
I mainly use my autoblogs for linkbacks to better sites of mine, but also to trade links from to get links from other people to my better sites
jaredjar says:
May 18th, 2009
8:55 pm
I have a network of about 100 subdomains, domains, and hundreds of pages on web 2.0 properties that point back to them.
I’ve used SENUKE to build up all the links going to them and raise their PR.
I don’t use any affiliate programs, all my income is from direct selling links on the blogs. I find my customers in forums and set them up on a monthly subscription.
All managed through an excell sheet by the way.
JOHNROD1 says:
May 18th, 2009
9:42 pm
I would use a banner ads plugin to rotate related banners that promote CPA offers.
John
Internet-markkinointi elämää says:
May 18th, 2009
11:19 pm
I’m very surprised. Haven’t found a good black hat blogger in a long time.
But how to monetize… Depends really about the nature of auto blog. Is it cloaked with generated content or is it RSS news, scraped articles etc. With pure BH I would say semi-adult to CPA. Remember there’s difference between BH CPA marketing and driving human traffic to CPA from BH sites. With more natural site I don’t see why not Adsense. Of course you have to use your own judgment and see if you actually have any balls left.
Chrisg says:
May 19th, 2009
4:56 am
pull in auto content about specific products related to niche (but not hypey reviews, more like just factual info), embed affiliate links
Lost says:
May 19th, 2009
7:59 am
Ok, give out the secret you black hat master…
All Right - My Auto Blogging Abusifier :) | Black Hat SEO Digest says:
May 19th, 2009
2:15 pm
[...] I asked for 5 comments for me to spout off about how I auto blog…. and I got it. I’ll start off by saying that [...]
SEOHolicc says:
May 19th, 2009
3:07 pm
I love reading about stuff like this. Do you use affiliate products for any of these sites?
admin says:
May 19th, 2009
3:33 pm
@seoHolicc – sure I do. Usually through a newsletter though. I just posted what I do here since you guys made 5 comments.
http://www.blackhatdigest.com/tutorials/all-right-my-auto-blogging-abusifier/
Now it looks like you’ve done 10 and I’ll have to code something up as a reward.
(*i’ve got a nifty idea – I’ll make it up and post it here when I’m ready)
mrsensational says:
May 22nd, 2009
10:23 am
I would use generic CPA ads like ring tones and dating.
Cheers
Andy
Web design In Spain says:
May 22nd, 2009
11:02 am
As usual Ed you’re right on the money with your ideas, I’ve already read the other post!
I only have a couple of autoblogs and use them more for linkbacks then anything else. They get loads of traffic but very few real interested visitors.
Exit traffic works, sort of… get the occasional affiliate sale from this but really would like to make better use of the effort involved.
Now about to change one of my autoblogs and start to autopost real articles, OK some of the thousands of PLR ones that I have, to make G take more notice.
Being totally lazy I use this free site to automate this task…
http://csgl.net/blogautomator/
Works for me on a load of my other sites so why I hadn’t thought of it for my autoblogs I don’t know, maybe just needed you to remind me…
mark says:
May 22nd, 2009
12:33 pm
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Looks like a lot more than 10… give up the goods.
mark
admin says:
May 22nd, 2009
1:52 pm
Hehe – alright. Have to clean it up so it’s a little easier for you all to use and I’ll give it up.
Hint: It stores rss items by categories, mixes them up and reposts for you automatically. You are still scraping, but you can use some of the full length feeds out there to really beef it up – and unlike everyone else scrapping “G” blog search your ‘items’ are from different dates.
mtchapman says:
May 22nd, 2009
2:41 pm
I don’t use it to monetize but for the links, baby, links!
MichaelZ says:
May 22nd, 2009
3:39 pm
Here is something I have tried with some results. Set the front page to no more than 3 posts and use a sitcky post plugin to make the first post solid. Put a CPA offer in the sticky post. If you’ve got a number of autoblogs in the same category, maybe you could just post an Iframe page from your master site. Then you would only have to change that one page if the CPA offer provider removes their offer from the network.
Prescott says:
May 22nd, 2009
4:20 pm
I can see some very responsive and smart folks read this blog. Don’t know if I’m one of them but I agree adsense ain’t your best bet. It’s the easiest but I save adsense for specific applications (situations). Probably some type of cost per method and/or list build.
admin says:
May 22nd, 2009
4:25 pm
@trevd All my readers are smart, even the ones that aren’t
Mary Galllagher says:
May 22nd, 2009
5:49 pm
It takes a lot of repetition for me to understand stuff. So I appreciate all you share, Ed. Some of it is way above my head, some is just a tad fast for me, some is right on the mark, some blackhat I just don’t want to do. But I do want to understand it all. So I’m glad you are continuing to post.
I like a combination of personal blog posts and information pulled from other sources, like news about the main keywords. That’s as auto content as I get right now. I would like to monetize with affiliate marketing to promote relevant products on blogs I have.
I have neglected sites out there, so auto content is better than neglected, so I want to learn more about all this so I can use it for good…best, Mary
Steve757 says:
May 22nd, 2009
7:24 pm
Hi Ed,
I think Mary is really on to something. Still being “one of the guys stuck in my day job” time is obviously a very precious commodity. When she talks about “neglected sites out there,” we all have them. And I will be the first to admit it is due to the lack of time in the day…
Well, my thought is if you can control the “drip” of information in your autoblogging you can slow it down just enough to make it be more a “tilt of the gray hat” than the full blown “blackhat.”
Thanks for the great site and keep the information flowing.
Steve
talzz2 says:
May 22nd, 2009
7:27 pm
didnt even need to comment but interested to see the script
ScarlettCocoa says:
May 22nd, 2009
8:25 pm
I fully agree with Mary above; learning through repetition and practice is the only way for me and I continually strive to understand it all. I’ve built a fair few autoblogs with no real purpose other than for me to learn. I’ve attempted to monetize with adsense, phpbay and affiliate offers but I’ll no doubt revert to using these sites purely for linkage.
monkeymeat says:
May 23rd, 2009
2:02 am
I’d stick to my guns and keep away from any adsense. Have a nice looking site and use some sweet CPA offers tightly-woven to your long-tails. Adsense is slowly becoming played out, I think. Besides, you leave digital DNA all over the place if you have any thoughts about getting seriously dark at some point.
Gonna try to get back on Black Hat Digest soon, Ed. Health probs have pretty much knocked me in the dirt for the time being. Thought the nuts and bolts content kicked butt. Been thinking about getting Xrumer at some point, maybe try to find some do-follows so it can help earn its keep. Have a good Memorial Weekend.
monopoly says:
May 23rd, 2009
5:47 am
Are you feeling the love yet????? LOL
I have created a bunch of what I considered auto blogs, where posts come in – articles from a few different sources – automatically.
I’ve been wondering how to actually use it to make money as well
Loved the above and below the posts part – I have banner ads that are very related to the subject – but each is a lot more general than your R2D2 example – hmmm, maybe THAT’s where i went wrong? How long have I been here getting this stuff anyways – damn!
I have the posts auto post to twitter, plus ping.fm etc
What I’d love to find is the thing that turns keywords into clickable clickbank or whatever affiliate program links – loved that idea – the one I saw seemed very manual tho
love the idea of exit pops – why haven’t I done that before? Just need a general offer – good idea!
I would love to add in a drip of datafeed entries from related affiliate programs – say alternating with real articles – NOW THAT would be a “little program” worth popping in for!
Thanks for the ideas buzzing in my head – got to get to work!
Andrew Larder
MarketingSharks.com
Lisa Real Estate Investor Schwartz says:
May 23rd, 2009
5:50 pm
There’s lots of ways to monetize blogs.
1. collect opt-ins via a free report offer and then put an autoresponder series with affiliate or your own products as an upsell. autoresponder can send them to a OTO1 and OTO2 and other pages.
2. use a free plugin hoplinkad.com and insert clickbank ads throughout your site. Better payout than adsense.
3. put cpa offers throughout your site. it’s easy to join cpanetworks and get banners, text links and emails (for autoresponer #1 above)
4. use max banner ad (free or pro) to rotate banners and keep track of them
5. use a link to offer script that highlights keywords and sends users clicking through to a money site or affil landing page.
6. use an email script for #1 to go to a landing page where email address is pre-populated into a CPA offer that is a pay per email offer and you can make a $1-3 per lead.
that’s a few I can think.
blogfoxy says:
May 29th, 2009
6:56 am
You are all WAY over my head, but I thank Ed for starting this thread, and I thank all of you for your outstanding ideas! Hopefully, I’ll be able to offer good ideas in the future, but I’m sure enjoying checking these out.
bk says:
June 12th, 2009
2:18 pm
Some very good comments here, I would be more interested in the links for now.
? If you put adsense on autoblogs aren’t you more likely to get banned by G?
I suppose you would have to create multiple adsense accouts to avoid huge footprint. Thats assuming you wanted to monetize with adsense.
admin says:
June 12th, 2009
4:47 pm
I’d just steer clear of adsense all together on anything totally automated, scrapped, or where you are worried about footprints.
The payout is usually better via other methods anyway – even if you are putting your own “adsense” type ads up for affiliate products. You can gear things better towards your audience and not worry about the footprints so much.
sarge says:
July 14th, 2009
1:29 pm
You definitely have more than 5 comments here! Way to go!
Not sure how I’d monetize autoblogs, possibly using CPA banners.
Sarge
joe says:
August 26th, 2009
12:34 am
Make the site as ugly as possible and use some bangin banners for users to click on, Works like a champ!
Buddy says:
November 23rd, 2009
9:53 pm
Like many I still have a DJ and do mostly WH stuff. I DO use LFE for backlinks though. I’d probably do affiliate or CPA (if I knew more about it) on autoblogs that could be monet blogs
Norma Rickman says:
June 14th, 2010
4:50 am
I use WordPress on my autoblogs, so I’d hack the theme to get phpZon or phpBay to automatically post products on it, and post links to Clickbank in a table as well.
Might throw in a few text links to some CJ products in a side bar too.
GJ says:
July 9th, 2010
1:04 pm
The are auto scraping blogs and there are auto posting blogs that use your own spun articles. Affil offeres on spun pages are OK
There is a plugin that posts amazon offers and spins
GJ
admin says:
August 6th, 2010
8:19 pm
I love all the comments – you certainly earned something from me.
I’ve added free auto blogging to adverev.com