Category: Website

How companies use Big Data and Analytics

Paul

Big data by Nick Youngson
CC BY-SA 3.0
Pix4free

What is Big Data?

The term “big data” refers to data that is so large, fast or complex that it’s difficult or impossible to process using traditional methods. The act of accessing and storing large amounts of information for analytics has been around a long time.— Sas.com (https://www.sas.com/en_us/insights/big-data/what-is-big-data.html)

Even that information is a little more harder to understand than we think.   Big data is the use of servers with massive hard drive space and massive cpu power to use to analyze and look for patterns or maybe it is even simpler it is a bitcoin rig that is trying to find the hash to make a profit out of.   Either way it requires a big amount of data and processing power to find the right hash to unlock bitcoins.   This is what big data is, it has to analyze the hash and find the possible algorithms to for he bitcoin and make money for the user.   It’s really a long process but the idea is simple it requires a lot of data and sending and receive of data to verify if the bitcoin is unlocked or not and each time it uses even more data to check it hashes as it tries to work out the formula for the bitcoin.  This is what big data is about in a fashion.

Data Analytics

When we talk about analytics it can seem strange to say or even think that a company will use it to make a profit.   It however is the thing in today’s market because most of the time, companies are trying to figure out what the user is wanting and leveraging what they want with making money.   So what’s Analytics and why should I need to know about it?

Analytics is simply the process of looking for patterns in users and data to find common paths and understanding why those paths are being used. 

Let’s face it, Companies want that information because they can figure out how to advertise to you or even bring more people to a landing page to convert into you buying their products or services.  If they know 20 year olds like a certain vehicle or likes a movie, they will advertise to these groups of people and make sure their products are seen more widely to them so they can make a profit from these 20 year olds who didn’t know they were being used to make money from.

Websites

Most websites now are getting as much data as they can to find those common paths to help increase their profit and make money off of the web.  It is always going to be that way, after all advertising is a really good commodity for those who can harness the data and leverage advertisements to people who visit their site.  I say that with some understanding of this because I do this from time to time on my site and it isn’t any harder than what most think.   I am constantly looking at what people are doing or where people are going on my site.   This way I can get the advertisers to advertise for me and bring me some money to help support my website and help support my data needs for the site.  I am hopeful that it will bring even more people to my site and bring them into my world and want to be loyal readers but in reality I also know when I have loyal readers they are more likely to support me and keep my site running in many ways.   This is the nature of analytics and that is why it is so widely used.  After Facebook does this and they know you are know it in one way or another.  In truthfulness we really don’t have any more privacy when we are on the web because everyone is going to use that data for one purpose or another.

 

The Dark side of Dating sites!

Paul


Come to The Dark Side, We have cookies Shirt — Cafepress (Click image to check it out!)

You Don’t know the Power of the Dark Side on Dating sites!

When your looking for that special someone you probably have been on several different sites.  It however is nothing compared to some of the things I’ve seen.   I’d get emails with the heading:

 

  • Someone sent you a Flirt
  • Someone’s Trying to Get in Touch With You!
  • A Zoosk member would like to chat with you on Zoosk
  • A Zoosk member sent you a flirt on Zoosk!
  • Someone wants to meet you!

These are a few of the emails I would get from time on these sites.   Some times it is a legit email and other times.   You have to wonder who comes up with the email.   Most of the time you get emails from people with phone numbers and email addresses they usually use “/” to avoid the filters on the said dating sites.   Now here are a few observations from not being scammed on dating sites!

Ways to tell you it’s a fake profile!

It doesn’t make much since but these people who send you some stuff makes me worry.   For example here are my tips to know if this is a spam and probably just a scam email in the same process.

  • Gives out the Email address the first email!
  • Gives out the text number to text them on the first email!
  • They claim to be living in another country in the first or few emails in!
  • The person profile isn’t complete!
  • The picture on the profile is super hot!

These are just a few observations that tell me a profile is either fake, but it isn’t the only indication.   Usually if I am curious I will still use one of my many email address specifically designed for the spam catching emails addresses.  Just to see if this is a real person or not.   You can usually tell by checking out the email headers.  If you ever want to know for sure this is the best possible way to tell if this email is coming from Germany, Africa, or Some other country besides the one you are on.   It just takes a little patients!  Hope this helps you out!

Paul Sylvester

Amazon Affiliate Link

 

 

Why I use Google Affiliate Network!

Paul

Google Affiliate Network Summit 045 Google Affiliate Network Summit 045 (Photo credit: Affiliate)

There’s More than one way to skin a cat!

When all said is done, you have a big selection of affiliate networks that you can choose from.   You might even wonder which affiliate network is the best for your situation.   In this blog post, we will talk about some of the things that you can do to choose which one might be the best for your situation.   Not all Affiliate networks will be the same but this will at least let you understand which ones are right for you.

An affiliate network acts as an intermediary between publishers (affiliates) and merchant affiliate programs. It allows website publishers to more easily find and participate in affiliate programs which are suitable for their website (and thus generate income from those programs)

[Wikipedia]

Finding what works for you!

There are so many different networks you can use that you may have trouble knowing which one will work for you.  I will say before we go on that I do not know every single affiliate network but I have tried all the major affiliate networks and I will give you my opinions on each of them.

 Google Affiliate Network — I’ve been using this network from the get go, I will say that I’ve had some modest luck with this network.  I’ve made some money with network because of Glasses USA (Affiliate link).   I’ve always got paid for my commissions and they do actually care about your website and helping you get your commissions.

Commission Junction — I’ve tried this network and gotten some commissions from this network but it hasn’t really been a good relationship for me.  I didn’t really feel like they had my own website in mind.  I had to apply for all the merchants and never really had any luck with merchants wanting to have their advertising on my site.

Linkshare — Another good network that I didn’t have any luck with.   I know they have a wide variety of things that might be good for you but I really didn’t find anything that fit well with my website.  It always seemed to be more about page views then commissions.   They would always be someone wanting to be on my site that was unrelated to my blog.   I really didn’t feel that was a good fit for my website.

Linkconnector — I recently signed up to find out which programs they have on this site.  I haven’t been on their long and have already been offered to be part of merchants that are unrelated to my blog again.   These sites that were offered are nice for blogs or advertisers who is related in one way or another.   I bet these guys don’t even check the website they are offering to.

 Mal-Advertising!

Malware Advertising is something that I have come to understand just a little more and thus it is always going to be a problem for the affiliate networks because someone will come along and offer a service but are rarely understood because of the nature of advertising.   I am not saying that every time you sign up for a new advertiser that you are going always going to have one when you sign up but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t at least do your research before you start using their ads.   I’ve been happy with my selection of using Google Affiliate networks but I would love to hear which ones you use and why.   Just leave a comment and tell me and others who you recommend.

Paul Sylvester

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Why Auto blogs aren’t the way to make Money!

Paul2 Replies

A T-shirt parodying the political neologism &q... Image via Wikipedia

What is an Auto Blog?

Autoblog is a neologism and misnomer used to describe a particular type of website which uses software designed to automatically add content in a blog format.[1] The owner of an autoblog is generally referred to as an autoblogger. Engaging in this practice is called autoblogging.
Autoblogging does not require a site owner to create original web content. An autoblogger merely installs the necessary software, and configures its settings to collect the type of content desired. The automated software handles the rest.

[Via Wikipedia]

Autoblogs are basically just programs designed to publish other people’s stuff. Now I am not going to explain some stuff that you might not know. Plugins for WordPress like WordPress Magic, WP Robot, MultiPress Content, Commission Cheat, and  other autoblogging software are sometimes considered Auto Content Stealing programs. I know more about this then people who are just starting off.  I’m here today to talk about these programs in detail.

Make Money While You  are Sleeping!

You’ve probably heard that one a lot or Hidden Secrets to commissions in advertising. Most of them do somewhat what they say. I was using one in particular for almost over a year and I didn’t see any noticeable amount of money coming in from having that run day in and day out.

I’ve even seen those advertisements on YouTube and other video places claiming that you could make Millions and not do anything more than install a plugin that takes just 10 minutes install.   These programs however most of the time cost money and that is where the catch is.   I have no problem paying for something that works but most of the time if you claim I can set it and forget about it, I just say no thanks.

Does these work?

I know most of you who are asking this question, and probably saw something on another website and you are quite curious as to if these work or not.  I will give you the short answer “NO”, they aren’t really a scam because you make money but you really don’t make money like you’ve seen on the advertisements.   You basically just make enough commissions to pay for the product in one year.   I may have made more but you get the gist of that.   You also have to remember that you have to have a really high Google PR to even get the traffic that is needed to make any kind of money.

Just creating a new domain, will not help you because it will have no Google Juice for quite some time and that is if you get any at all.   Most of the time, Google looks down on this type of stuff and stops you before you even get going.

Is this Stealing content?

Most of the time you aren’t really taking anything that you shouldn’t but that doesn’t mean you could be doing that.   Most Auto Blog plugins will allow to you pick what you want to use as content and it will publish what you tell it.  The content that you will most like get are from like Amazon, Clickbank, Commission Junction, and other such Affiliate programs.   They usually allow you to use their content for your website and thus you can use them on your site.   The Kicker to this is, Google and other SEO, they will rank you lower just because of that.   They consider scraper sites to be nothing more than spam and thus you might go down in ranking if your not careful.

How do I know?

I created a Website called “unlocked cell phones blog” trying to test this out.  I created that last year about this time and set up using WP Robot, as my autoblog plugin.   After that year was up, I checked my Amazon Account tracking ID and guess what.   I only made “$56.45“.   As you can tell I pretty much made what I put into it, I bought the software for $75 and I got half that back.   I made a little more money on my other Domain Tech-linkblog.com but I couldn’t tell you for sure if it was all the plugin or if some of those was because of my old content.

Recommendations!

Here is what I recommend, if your really wanting to do this, do as much research as you can and know this.   There are websites that are specifically designed to waste your time to prevent you from finding your answers.   I know if you look on Google and others you will see that you find all these Glowing reviews and people who are just posting Videos of this type of stuff so they can make a little money.   You really have to go 3 to 4 pages in to find some truth in these AutoBlogging software.   You will find your answers if you ask the right questions and search for what makes sense.   I will not say I am totally against Auto Blogs, but I am not going to waste my money on another one of those in the future.  I now know that making money overnight isn’t always going to be possible without at least working for it.

It’s not how you do it but what you do that can make your blog a success.  You never know if your going to write the best article in your life or the worst article but until you try.  This I hope has told given you what you have been wondering or asking.   I’d love to hear your comment
s and your experiences, I might be the only one who hasn’t done so good but I’m willing to bet there are others out there.

Paul Sylvester

 

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Being more Honest with my Affiliate Links!

Paul

Google Affiliate Network Summit 035 Google Affiliate Network Summit 035 (Photo credit: Affiliate

Testing the Waters!

A friend told me, a couple days ago that I should be telling my readers when I have affiliate links.  He said I would would get even more sales if I were to be a little more honest with which ones are actually the ones that I make money off of!   It would better help those decide if your going to be a a good blog or not.   I really didn’t have much to say on the matter because I didn’t know what to say. I am sure there will always be those who will not tell you.   I thought it was quite obvious when I didn’t tell you but then I forgot I was hiding my affiliate links, not to be dishonest but to prevent programs and virus from taking away from all the work I have done.   I know there will always be people who will got the site directly and not give the site the credit.  I understand that, and somewhat expect that.

Honesty is the best Policy!

That being said, if you ever come to one of my posts and you see the (Affiliate links) or (Affiliate link) then it will be linked to this post.   So you can read about my honesty and understand that I am working really hard at changing.   Here is how this will work:

  • Reviews — I promise to my readers that I believe in the review of the product and that it is a recommendation from me.

  • Reimbursement — Hosting isn’t cheap now a days, that is I put up my Affiliate links and also to try supplement my working income.

  • If Gifted to me — I will clearly state that in my post and my review will no be swayed by the free gift of the item.  If it sucks, you will know about it and if it is something useful then you will also know about it.  I may however have affiliate links for the item.

  • Nicer URLS — even though I have hidden the urls and you have to click the URL to go the affiliate site in question, it is because the URL aren’t really neat and tidy.   If you feel offended because you can’t see URL then please feel free not to click those links.  (I wouldn’t want to see http://www.amazon.com/blah/blah/blah/blah/etc, anyways and I bet you don’t either)

  • Gift Cards — If you are wanting me to review a certain item and it is on Amazon or some other place then I will gladly accept a gift card through email(First name @ this domain).  However if it is something else please don’t hesitate to email me.

  • Review UNITS — Same as Gifted cards, if your wanting me to review an item but don’t know where to send it.   Please email me and I’ll discuss with you where to send it.  (First Name @ this domain)  Please bear in mind that I may not give a nice review, so I make no PROMISES and there are no expectations.

Prove to me!

I’ve done the unthinkable and stopped hiding all my links on this site.   So if you want me to continue to do it this way,  I will need to see a positive out come.   I was making money hiding sites links and not telling people about them being affiliate links.   Now I don’t want to see a drop in sales and money by being honest.   Help support my love to blog and being able to read about the stuff that matters to you.   Just like Glasses USA (Affiliate link) matters to me because I have to wear glasses everyday and I can’t afford to go buy some really expensive pairs of glasses.   They have been the one source for me, when I need to buy new glasses.  If you find a post that you really think is good, then don’t be afraid to share it on Facebook or Twitter.   Those are one ways to show your support of my blog.

Nothing shows support like sharing a post!

Paul Sylvester

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