Make Money Online with TheMakeMoneyOnline?

written by Michael Kwan on May 8, 2009

If you want to be a great basketball player, it would be ideal if you could learn from Michael Jordan and Phil Jackson. By the same accord, if you want to know how to make money online, it would be ideal if you could learn from some of the best Internet entrepreneurs and marketers. That’s probably why you’re here reading John Chow dot Com.

Another self-proclaimed money-making guru is some guy named Paul Barlow. He shares his expertise over at Paul’s Money Making Schemes, the blog that serves as the subject of today’s review. Should you be paying attention to what Paul has to say? Let’s find out.

What is TheMakeMoneyOnline?

Paul’s Money Making Schemes is located at TheMakeMoneyOnline.net and it is a blog that is focused on all aspects of how to make money online. That much makes sense, but the domain doesn’t really make any real grammatical sense. What the heck is the make money online?

tmmo-main

On this site, you’ll find a variety of content related to how you can make money with and without a website. Paul describes his experience with different advertising networks, describes his preferred search engine optimization (SEO) tactics, and so on.

Some of the posts that caught my eye include the following:

You can tell that Paul takes a very casual approach to this blog, as evidenced by some posts that some people may find distasteful in scope. This could be Paul’s attempt at being unique, but he could be turning away some readers as a result too.

Additional Features and Resources

In addition to the blog posts, which are published almost every day, Paul also offers a series of MMO-related resources. You can check out his preferred ad networks, for instance, as well as over 1200 link directories that accept free submissions.

tmmo-dir

Branding is Key, But…

The overall layout for Paul’s Money Making Schemes is pretty standard, offering basic navigational links at the top and tossing a series of 125 ad boxes in the sidebar. It’s good to the RSS feed featured prominently near the top. It’s also good to see that Paul included a photo of himself, so we can put a face to his name.

That’s all well and good, but perhaps the biggest issue with this blog is that it looks like every other blog out there. There’s no attempt at differentiating this blog from the pack, no attempt at personal branding. Paul did not invest in a unique blog design, a unique header image, or anything of that sort.

Part of the reason why folks like Darren Rowse and Shoemoney are so well-known and respected is because they have done a wonderful job at branding themselves. Paul Barlow has not done this.

The lack of branding also permeates his Twitter account. He has an avatar, but he has not uploaded a custom background image. Without reading much more into it, there’s no way that a casual passer-by would know that Paul is supposed to be some sort of MMO guru.

This is easily my biggest suggestion to Paul. Develop your brand and promote it. By Paul’s own admission, TheMakeMoneyOnline.net is “just your normal MMO blog.” If you see yourself as normal, how can you expect anyone else to think otherwise?

Unlocking the Money Shot

When you sign up for the free John Chow dot Com newsletter, you are provided with a free copy of John’s e-book. Paul has taken a similar approach, telling how he makes $100+ a day with AdSense. In order to access that report, you need to sign up for his email updates. Aside from that, it’s completely free.

tmmo-protected

In the password-protected post, you learn that Google Trends is part of the secret. He also explains, step by step, how he was able to make $132 from AdSense alone. Paul discusses content, monetization, traffic, optimization, and so forth.

Just Another MMO Blog

At this point, it’s really hard for me to recommend Paul Barlow over the numerous other so-called MMO experts on the Internet. Feel free to add his feed to your preferred RSS aggregator and gauge for yourself whether his content is worthwhile.

Just don’t be surprised if you glaze past his content without even noticing it.

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{ 53 comments }

Jonk May 8, 2009 at 10:53 pm

Surprised he managed to get 200 RSS readers to be honest; the blog is mediocre.

Jonk’s last blog post: Make Money Online – Part 4

Jake Stone May 9, 2009 at 4:56 am: Mediocrity is a blessing in disguise, study it and do the opposite or take it a notch higher and you are some other place, which is not mediocrity.

Jake Stone’s last blog post: Finnish army to buy Nintendo Wii game stations
almir May 10, 2009 at 11:21 am: You make a good point there but his blog is not half bad

almir’s last blog post: Review Of The Email Messenger “Mostly Known” As AWEBER
almir May 10, 2009 at 11:26 am: Honestly to tell you the truth his blog is not mediocre at all maybe it needs some work but it’s not quite that bad its really good his posts are the only thing is does wrong is make several misspellings

almir’s last blog post: Review Of The Email Messenger “Mostly Known” As AWEBER

game-girl May 8, 2009 at 11:35 pm

I am about exploring the blog to see the best of it.

game-girl’s last blog post: Призраки в Коннектикуте скачать фильм онлайн

fas May 10, 2009 at 12:35 am: Was this a review or opposite of that?

fas’s last blog post: Online Marketing Is The Way Of The Future

Caden Grant May 9, 2009 at 12:05 am

At least you were honest, John :p I agree with what you said about branding. He needs to make his blog unique and brand better. Nice review.

Caden Grant’s last blog post: 7 Things Successful Bloggers Do

almir May 10, 2009 at 11:23 am: I did read a couple of his blog posts but their were really good and although many people don’t necessarily agree I disagree with the others

almir’s last blog post: Review Of The Email Messenger “Mostly Known” As AWEBER

Aman@BullsBattleBears May 9, 2009 at 12:34 am

That was a great review John. checking out the site for some info and tips and interested in reading that ebook for the adsense tip. Good, honest review.

Aman@BullsBattleBears’s last blog post: Win a 40″ Samsung LCD HDTV!!

Vic-BusinessAccent May 9, 2009 at 3:59 am

Hi John,

That was an honest review from an expert.
I also appreciate your words in saying -feel free to add his feeds. Thanks for the information.

Vic-BusinessAccent’s last blog post: How to Get More Customers and Increase Your Sales

The Poker Jerk May 9, 2009 at 4:03 am

I can’t belive he paid for a review with such a shitty site. The money he spent could have gone to a decent design, or some grammar and spelling lessons!

The Poker Jerk’s last blog post: Getting Ready to Give Away Some Money

iPhone May 9, 2009 at 5:04 am

I completely agree.

Looks like just a basic web template taken off a free site.

Rachel May 9, 2009 at 7:52 am

Definitely a free template, one from dailyblogtips. I am surprised that he paid so much for a review though. I’m sure the traffic John sends is high, but really, Paul could have concentrated on commenting on John’s blog and establishing a relationship with this community and probably gained the same amount over time.

Rachel’s last blog post: Optimize Your Press Release As Part of Your Link Building Strategy

Cam Birch May 9, 2009 at 1:54 pm: I totally agree, traffic can be important to a blog but branding and quality are far more important. The cost of this review is the same or close to the cost of a full custom theme.

Cam Birch’s last blog post: Has The Recession Ended?

PV Reymond May 9, 2009 at 4:51 am

Hi John,

Great review and overall honest.

I think that Paul shouldn’t get depressed reading this review, instead he should learn from it, he could improve his blog based on it.

This is what successful people do, they listen to others, they consider other peoples’ ideas and points of view and try to improve what they are doing.

Thanks,
^PV Reymond

Jake Stone May 9, 2009 at 5:13 am: You are absolutely right Raymond. I have a feeling that Paul is one of those people who will listen and then improve. However, even people like this fall into so many different categories that we just have to wait it out and see what Paul does. That is if anyone is interested to follow Paul’s progress…

Jake Stone’s last blog post: Finnish army to buy Nintendo Wii game stations

Melody May 9, 2009 at 5:33 am

I hate the name of that site..here is a simple case of a “guru” trying to take advantage of the terms “make money online” way to literally. If he was an expert, he would’ve realized the importance of branding, and not limiting the site’s potential with such a bland and overused name.

And the grammatical error–yea, that’s the first impression you want to make for new readers–come to my blog even though it won’t make any sense.

rofl..what a wasted review–for him at least..

TYCP Entertainment Magazine May 12, 2009 at 3:17 am: I really don’t get why he didn’t even try to brand his site much. That’s just mind-boggling.

TYCP Entertainment Magazine’s last blog post: Courtney Van Dusen Interview

Ekey May 9, 2009 at 6:21 am

It looks like Just another MMO Blog … I would like to see some proof..

tung desem May 10, 2009 at 1:50 am: I will check the website.

Greg Ellison May 9, 2009 at 6:40 am

Most of the big time bloggers have grammer errors on their posts and pages. You over looked his Word Press plugins. His site is about makeing money online why not have a domain about making money in it.

Greg Ellison

Greg Ellison’s last blog post: Thesis Theme – A Very Easy WordPress Theme

Luke May 9, 2009 at 7:19 am

Seriously terrible domain name. No power or brandability at all behind it. My guess is he went to Godaddy.com and typed in “makemoneyonline.com” and when he found out it had already been taken (no shit, right?) he just chose “themakemoneyonline” from the GoDaddy recommendations below and still had to opt for the .net. He’ll get nowhere with that domain.

Seriously guy, put some more thought into it. Brandability and a memorable domain name is damn near half the battle in making a name for yourself online.

Shanker Bakshi May 9, 2009 at 7:43 am

checking it out, may be there is something i haven’r explore yet.

Shanker Bakshi’s last blog post: Learn How Daniel Scocco Launched $10,000 A Month Membership Site

Kent May 9, 2009 at 8:38 am

Note that the review was written by Michael Kwan, not John Chow but the style looks pretty much the same to me. And it’s a great, honest review.

Ready up this guy’s post re Text-Link-Ads, and considering John has it put on the top of page as one of the nice recommended ads network, John and/or Michael, what’s your take about the Text-Link-Ads? Is that true that using them will get Google’s penalty in result?

Thanks, Kent

Michael Kwan May 9, 2009 at 12:37 pm

Thanks for noticing the byline. I think one of the distinct differences between my posts and John’s is that I tend to have far fewer spelling and grammar mistakes.

Regarding TLA, yes, it does seem to hurt your Google PageRank, but… it does not appear to hurt your ranking for individual posts. As far as I can tell, anyway.

Michael Kwan’s last blog post: If Microsoft Ruled the Cow World…

Kent May 9, 2009 at 1:23 pm: Thanks Michael. Then I think my style is more like John’s..lol

I agree that I should be more cautious having them on my site. I guess, as long as the links are relevant to the content I provided on the site, it should be ok.

Hope my guess makes sense.
TYCP Entertainment Magazine May 12, 2009 at 3:20 am: I just never understand why some people don’t even bother to check & see who the post is by. It’s not hard.

TYCP Entertainment Magazine’s last blog post: Courtney Van Dusen Interview

Royalty Free Music May 9, 2009 at 9:33 am

Definitely a TERRIBLE choice in a domain name if he wants to do any branding. Also, I went to his favorite ways to make money and he says that Paid Surveys are a great way to make money online. That knocks him down a step on the credibility ladder for me. I think he is just trying to make some affiliate commissions and really not trying to help readers.

I do give him credit for spending the money and getting a review on JohnChow.com however. I imagine he is getting himself a bunch of traffic this week.

Patrick May 9, 2009 at 10:30 am

I disagree about the template. If the content is good, who cares about the template. Sites like Google, Twitter, Graig’s List, among many other have very basic templates. No fancy stuff is OK. The domain name is a little goofy but again who cares. The one confusing thing is that the dates of the posts are at the bottom with no year. I like to see when a post was written and it should be next to the post title.

His post title “You Can Only Piss With The Dick You’ve Got!” is definitely a turn off. I believe in always keeping things professional. That title may turn off your audience and advertisers.

Paul does have some interesting posts, so I will sign up to his RSS.

Patrick’s last blog post: AT&T to Offer Prepaid Unlimited Nationwide Calling for $3 per Day

internetsalsa May 9, 2009 at 12:28 pm: I guess you wanted to say craigslist.

internetsalsa’s last blog post: Are you loyal to Twitter?
TYCP Entertainment Magazine May 10, 2009 at 9:06 pm: Google & Twitter’s layouts are way better than his. And to say that design hardly matters is a lie.

TYCP Entertainment Magazine’s last blog post: Courtney Van Dusen Interview

Paul B May 9, 2009 at 12:37 pm

Thanks for the review Michael/John. Pretty much what I asked for

I know a lot of people would wonder why in gods name would I pay for a review for that site? The answer is a fairly simple one I’m afraid – I’m constantly chucking my money where my mouth is in order to find out what does and doesn’t work. What is and isn’t worth the money? The review was a freebie for buying Yaro’s Blog Mastermind course, so I’ve had the chance to review Yaro’s course and John’s reviews for value.

That is all.

Paul B’s last blog post: Sponsor A Fool – Progress Report

Cam Birch May 9, 2009 at 2:00 pm

Paul, I’m curious what you are planning to do with the result of this review then. While I’m sure this review is directing quite some traffic to your site, do you intend to make some adjustments or was the review mostly for testing purposes?

Cam Birch’s last blog post: Has The Recession Ended?

Paul B May 10, 2009 at 1:32 am

Mainly testing, see what you get for $500. I do this sort of thing quite a lot (Pay for stuff to test and review for my readers). I actually thought the review was just about right, the only exception I’d take is the part about being a self proclaimed guru – don’t think I say that anywhere – at least I’d hope not. I make a point of letting people know that I’m not the fountain of all knowledge, I try lots of stuff, some work, some don’t.

Paul B’s last blog post: Sponsor A Fool – Progress Report

Cam Birch May 11, 2009 at 7:54 pm

As far as the guru thing I think thats just due to the general expectation that people who tell other people what to do usually proclaim themselves as some type of guru. Just a suggestion but maybe having some community content would soften the general guru feeling (unless that’s something your already doing and I didn’t notice).