Project Wonderful Looks Good

Project Wonderful

"Everybody wins.

"Project Wonderful is an online advertising broker with an innovative model that brings fairness, transparency, and profitability to the advertising process.

"We're all about making online advertising more profitable and easier for everyone involved!"

Looks like a good idea. I haven't made up my mind about Project Wonderful, but this discussion thread on BlogCatalog will help make up my mind: " 'Project Wonderful' Sounds Wonderful: Is It?."

Gray Googlers and Big Bucks: Maybe

"Little Known 'Boring' Websites That Make Incredible Money With AdSense."

I'm not sure I believe this article, but it's an interesting claim.

Being within rock-throwing distance of being a "gray Googler" myself, I may be see if there's anything behind the claims.

Making Money? Blogging? Apparently

(Thanks to VioletsVintage, on BlogCatalog, for bringing this article to my attention.)

"Yes, some blogs are profitable - very profitable," in today's San Francisco Chronicle, starts with an account of a blog that started as a hobby and wound up needing a CEO.

That doesn't mean that every blog will be a bonanza. Most are, well, the sort of thing that oozes out of those low spots in the back 40. the SFC article said, "But out of that morass, an elite of professionally produced blogs has risen thanks to their quality of writing, originality of thought and usefulness of information."

Like everything else: unless you're someone like Paris Hilton, you have to work to succeed.

As for P.H. - no, that's a whole different topic.

More Theft of Intellectual Property

Here we go again. This isn't my favorite topic, but I'll post something like when someone steals another's intellectual property.

The creative agent in this case is a blogger who maintains these blogs:

• "Cookies to Caviar"
• "Cooking With Anne"
  - the blog which the author says has been ripped off
• "The Rest of Me"

Some of her content seems to have been copied and republished as "Cooking Tips" at http://cooking-tips.googlelinks.net/.

---

UPDATE 1:30 am September 17, 2007.

It looks like http://cooking-tips.googlelinks.net/ is shut down. Here's what I found, when I checked the URL a few minutes ago:

"Cooking Tips

"Sorry, no posts matched your criteria."

---

There's a discussion thread at BlogCatalog.com, following this situation: "Calling out a loser...."

I appreciate that there are people out there who believe that as long as they steal something, it's okay, since everything's free on the Web. Or, they believe,it ought to be.

I don't agree.

It should be simple commons sense. A writer works to produce a blog post, an article, or anything else that someone might want to read. Another person comes along, copies the post, displays it, either as his or her own work, or (occasionally) with some sort of attribution. Without the author's knowledge or permission.

At best,it's tacky behavior, something like copying test answers.

At worst, it's robbing the writer of income. Quit a few writers, myself included, write with hopes of making money. Often, the money comes through advertising on the writer's website or blog.

When someone else copies the writer's work and posts it elsewhere, that deflects traffic from the writer, to the thief.

Related posts, on Intellectual Property Rights

Return of the Sploggers

"Splog" came up in another BlogCatalog discussion thread recently, "What Is Your Definition Of 'Splog'."

Comparing today's "splog" discussion with what I came up with in July ("Sploggers: Intellectual Property Thieves (July 28, 2007)), the term "splog" may be one that's evolving rapidly.

For bloggers who don't want to offend, it's a good discussion to read.

Related posts on Apathetic Lemming of the North:

• Return of the Sploggers
  (September 5, 2007)
• "All the Myriad Ways" - Tribute or Violation?
  (September 4, 2007)
• Stealing Intellectual Property Isn't Nice
  (August 29, 2007)
• Mis-Matched and Unattributed: Double Whammy for These Blog Posts
  (August 26, 2007)
• Intellectual Property Rights: A Borderline Post?
  (August 22, 2007)
• Intellectual Property Violation: What to Do
  (August 15, 2007)
• Intellectual Property Violation: This Time With Laughs
  (August 10, 2007)
• Copyright Material Ripped Off? You're not alone.
  (August 9, 2007)
• Plagiarism-Finder Site: Copyscape
  (August 9, 2007)
• Another Abuse of Copyright: If This Isn't Illegal, it Should Be!
  (August 9, 2007)
• Copyright: a List You Shouldn't Myth
  (August 8, 2007)
• Copy, Steal, Rob, Whatever: Another Violation of Intellectual Property Rights
  (August 3, 2007)
• Copyright Infringement, YouTube, and Video Sharing
  (July 28, 2007)
• Sploggers: Intellectual Property Thieves
  (July 28, 2007)

Monetizing Blogs and Websites: Ideas

"What's Better for Making Money: Advertising? Affiliate Programs? Retail?," yet another BlogCatalog discussion: This one has a variety of good ideas for making money from your blog or website.

No guarantees, of course, but the information and links should be a good starting point for the blogger or webmaster who doesn't mind monetizing their pages.

AdSense, Shopping.com, and Eldorado

Wouldn't it be nice if we had online advertising that was pure gold?

We don't, but bloggers and other online publishers still look for something better than what they've got.

Here's a link to the blog post: " Don't settle for Google AdSense." There's a fairly lively discussion in the post's comments.

I'm sticking with AdSense for now, but there were good points brought up.