After reading a recent blog comment, I’ve decided to give WritingUp.com (aff) a try.

The principle is simple:

• Sign up for a free blog.
• Enter your Google AdSense publisher ID.
• Start writing.
• Have your ads displayed half of the time on your own blog (the site owners get the other half)
• Referring other people will get your AdSense ads shown 10% of the time on their site.

My initial thoughts to this are as follows:

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Earlier this month I became the new editor at HDTV UK, Shiny Media’s blog all about high-defintiion TV in Britain.

Not only is it a new experience writing for a site that is currently pushing 50,000 page impressions a week, but it’s also a real discipline working to someone else’s schedule.

Of course, Ashley and I worked out a schedule that was mutually beneficial, but there’s still a world of difference between posting to a blog that you own outright, and that you set your own schedule for, and working on someone else’s blog - particularly one that is well-established and very well-read.

On my own blogs, I have only myself to directly answer to if I don’t post for a couple of days. Only my own reputation suffers.

When working for someone else, it can affect both my reputation, and that of the owner and controlling network.

It’s quite a motivator.

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This post is part of Darren’s Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers - Group Writing Project.

The following 12 traits are what I believe makes a ProBlogger.

1. Passionate

Passionate: Showing or caused by strong feelings or a strong belief.

Blogging for money is all very well, but first and foremost the ProBlogger must be passionate about their subjects - passionate to the point that they would write even if they never earned any money.

Passionate writing is original and attractive.

2. Patient

Patient: Able to wait without becoming annoyed or anxious.

Patience is a ProBlogger virtue. There’s nothing ‘get-quick’ about it. Good things come to the ProBlogger who works and waits.

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OK, I’m going to lay it out on the table:

“I will be a ProBlogger by 1st January 2007″

There, I’ve said it.

By ProBlogger, I mean I will derive all my income from online writing projects, be that my own, other people’s, or collaborative.
What I’d love to say and see happen is “I will be a ProBlogger by my 32nd birthday” - but that’s in just 2 months time, and I still don’t quite have the faith for that.

2007 feels more achievable.

If you look at my Problogging Percentage, you may be wondering how on earth I’m going to get there.

Probably through a combination of increasing earnings and decreasing the threshold.

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It should be fairly obvious, but if you are launching or promoting a site that is in any way seasonal (or could benefit from a seasonal lift) then you need to plan it early.

I am planning a site based around Christmas, and despite the fact that it’s not yet June, I am already planning it, working on templates, getting content sources, and working out how it might generate revenue.

The thumbnail graph above is from Google Trends, a new service that allows you to graph how many times one or more terms are searched over the past three years.

With something as obviously seasonal as Christmas, you can see that searches begin in earnest around the beginning of the fourth quarter, peaking in November and early December.

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Since my review of AdSense Videos, I’ve been getting the usual autoresponder followup messages written by Michael.

In them, he pushes other products, many of which are by Neil Shearing, another “successful Internet marketer”.

You wanna know why these two people are such great online marketers?

It’s because they cross-promote and sell each other’s stuff - constantly.

This is why I hate all these courses - they’re just over-priced excuses to sell more crap that doesn’t help the average person.

Wanna know why there’s always an affiliate program selling the course you’ve just bought? Because it’s the only way you might be able to make any money from the program that, otherwise, will make you very little.

Often, more emphasis is placed upon selling the course to others, than on making the actual course work for you.

Smells fishy? Darn right it does.

It’s verging on the pyramid scheme.

That’s my take on it, and I am not buying any more crap from any of these incestuous marketers.

I suggest you invest time researching, finding people who’ll give useful information away for free, building relationships with genuine people who aren’t merely out to take your money, and spending your time actually creating content and traffic rather than wasting money and time on courses that promise much and deliver little.

I thought I’d draw a little extra publicity to the latest content over at HDTV UK, which I currently write for.

One of my colleagues (sadly not me) is reviewing Sky HD, which went live in the UK today. He’s hooked it all up and is viewing the BBC high-definition trailers.

Check it out if you’re interested in the next-generation of UK broadcasting.

I thought I’d share with you two recent experiences of customer service.

Bad Service

The first was in a local supermarket’s café.

My wife and I decided to have a full English breakfast. We picked up our trays, ordered our hot food from the counter, served ourselves a couple of pots of tea, and paid at the cash till.

We then discovered that the cutlery drawers were empty.

We also saw a number of other customers milling around the area waiting to pick up knives and forks.

We waited for perhaps 10 minutes, in which time no member of staff could tell us what was wrong, or (more importantly) bring out any cutlery for us to eat our meals with.

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After my highly cynical comment on Darren’s article about Michael Cheney’s AdSense Videos course, I decided to take the advice of one of the other comments, buy the product and review it.

This will be a whistlestop review based on my impressions from viewing the product yesterday evening.

Firstly, for those who didn’t read the comment I made, I expressed my cynicism for these courses. Many of them are stock single-page web templates with large coloured fonts, pop-up windows, lots of inviting text, free bonus lures, time-limited offers (which almost never expire), nearly always valued at $97 or $197.

As an Internet user of over ten years, I have been burnt several times and wasted time and money on these kind of programs. And I’m not into the ‘get-rich-quick’ mentality either - though it would be nice, eh?

So, to Michael’s course.

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