Earn Passive Income While Web Surfing (Blog)

[Michelle]

There seems to be a lot of anger circulating here.

[Steve Pavlina]

I expected this post would generate these types of reactions. I agree that Agloco could very well be a huge flop. Still I personally think the concept has some decent potential. If it flops, big deal -- it will soon be forgotten among all the other flops. But if it doesn't flop, it could signal an unusual shift in online marketing.

Many of my readers are bloggers themselves, so I figured this was worth posting about to encourage people to look into it and decide for themselves. If it does work, it could financially benefit a lot of people, some in a small way, some in a big way. I'm willing to take a bit of flack for taking a risk on posting about it.

[jpfieber]

Originally Posted by Bruce Achterberg

I disagree. Think of it like this...

Why is it good for Steve to have ads on his website? Because if Steve is able to get paid for writing articles -- articles that generally help people -- he can write more of those articles. Sure it helps Steve, but what helps Steve also helps us, and what helps us may in turn help many, many other people (directly or indirectly).

What's ironic is that as Steve has become more popular, and he's found more ways to make money, the quantity and quality of his posts has declined. When I first found this site I spent a lot of time reading his back posts, and every new post that came out sent me off on a new and interesting thought process. In the last couple months his posts have been few and far between, and the topics have been a little 'out there' for me (of course that's going to be a subjective thing).

So, when Steve was living off just Adsense and donations, he was doing fine. Now he's spending time milking the system, and I'm not finding him helpful anymore...

[jpfieber]

Originally Posted by Michelle

There seems to be a lot of anger circulating here.

I don't think it's anger, I think it's mostly disappointment with a smattering of annoyance..

[Caveman Joe]

Originally Posted by jpfieber

I don't think it's anger, I think it's mostly disappointment with a smattering of annoyance..

Disillusioned, here.

[zapada]

Steve, you've reached a new low. Telling your dear visitors to install spyware so you can make a quick buck; what are you thinking? Your old articles were classic. These newer ones are pure trash. Steve, you are not helping anyone but yourself when you post this kind of referral crap.

[aaronmp2003]

My blog contains similar content to what Steve writes about, and I also share his basic business model - content that is monetized by advertisers, which no one seems to have a problem with - nor should they. However, I see 2 repeating complaints here:

1) That Steve has stooped to basically trying to make money off of his audience
2) That his recent content is not holding up to his previous standards.

As far as his content, I have also not seen the value in some of his recent posts, but I don't know that I'm ready to ditch him off of my RSS reader just yet. Not everyone is going to like everything that you write. However, if someone consistently writes things that you see no value in, then why waste your time?

However, as far as making money from his audience, it does always boil down to your individual choice about whether or not you click on an ad, buy a product, or - in this case - sign up for Agloco.

I personally think that he went a little overboard with the affiliate links in his post, but it wasn't like he was trying to trick anyone into doing anything. He was straight forward about his opinion, and about the fact that if you sign up, that you would be using his affiliate link to do so.

Do I believe in Agloco? I'm not sure, to be honest. However, as Steve pointed out, there is very little risk, and certainly no money on the table, so why not give it a shot? I'll download the viewbar and give them a reasonable trial period to find out for myself if it is the real deal or not, and I'll even give them a trial run with some ad space on my site.

As far as privacy concerns, I don't give a lot of focus to those concerns. There is technology available today that is far beyond what most people could guard against. If someone truly wants to get access to someone else's surfing habits or other cookie-type of information, there is always a way to do that.

I practice "safe surfing" by using common sense and a healthy virus/firewall system, but I don't obsess over what "might" happen. That's just my opinion, of course, and I'm sure others will disagree.

It all boils down to whether or not you think something is worth the risk. I thought Steve spelled out most of the ins and out of Agloco in his post, but again, I also thought his delivery was a little over the top.

[ArthurHung]

^ People, please take a good look at aaronmp2003's post. This is a good example of healthy feedback/criticism. There is no need to attack the character of the individual's opinion that you dislike. Steve or not-Steve.

You don't have to follow my suggestion, but please consider it. I just feel that it generates better mutually beneficial discussion. And as others have said, if you don't like an article, you can always just read something else.

[shant121]

Originally Posted by zapada

Steve, you've reached a new low. Telling your dear visitors to install spyware so you can make a quick buck; what are you thinking? Your old articles were classic. These newer ones are pure trash. Steve, you are not helping anyone but yourself when you post this kind of referral crap.

where is the spyware????????

I am definitely interested in Steve's perspective on things like Agloco. Thats personal development too: being open-minded, accepting diversity of belief and ideas. Evaluating new things.

In India, many classic movies are remade, over and over again. Producers figure that since the classic was a hit, a re-hash of the same script would be good. Steve's old articles may be classics, should he keep on remaking them...like remakes of classic movies?? Write the same stuff over and over and over agian?

If we just read the same articles again (there are tons of articles to go through) it will give a new perspective and teach us some new things. The reason why we keep wanting more of the old articles is we have not applied what is taught in those articles and may not have succeeded ...so we dont want to move on....just re-hash the old stuff..get stuck in high school.

I think Steve's polarity and subjective reality articles have touched a new high, they are awesome and have helped me gain a new perspective and a handle on my life.

[BelleEnchanted]

I didn't think this post was out of line with the rest of Steve's blog. Steve does write about a lot of different things. I may be wrong about this, but aren't some of his most popular posts the ones about getting traffic to your blog, and making a living from your blogging? Not exactly "pure" personal development posts, but I know that I found Steve's blogs as a result of these posts.

And of course, the old adage ... you don't have to read it if you don't like it, and you don't have to click on any of the links if it doesn't appeal to you.

Belle

[tobyhede]

Steve, you article does not clearly disclose that the Sign-Up is actually a referral.

[1000feet]

Originally Posted by machine

So basically what you are doing is stealing money from the advertisers and giving it to Steve. You get the benefit while someone else pays the price. Wow isn't that really noble of you...

You need to redefine win-win. You are basically clicking on ads with the intentions of giving a third party's money to Steve so you don't have to pay for the value you are receiving. Sounds to me like it goes something like this:

Steve wins - he gets the money(but he actually loses because it's stolen money)
You lose - because you are a thief stealing the advertisers money
Advertiser loses - because they pay for a click that has no way to earn income for them
So in reality it looks like, lose-lose-lose

Advertisers, and in turn the companies that sell ad space to them like Google, have thought of this too. If everyone started to do it Steve would likely "lose-lose-lose" the ads and the revenue he gets from them.

Going back to the topic, I can see why he would promote Agloco. With the number of readers he has, he'll probably get a nice additional income from referrals. On the other hand, if I sign up I would probably get a few pennies per hour. Even if it's for reading web pages that I would visit anyways, I'm better off doing regular work or even playing online poker. Now if I can get paid to watch an ad with each hand...

I can believe that this is something new because it's cutting viewers in on the usual deals between advertisers and content providers, but I don't really see it helping me unless I spend a lot of time trying to sign up others. Content providers make money with hundreds of thousands of page views, and most viewers will never approach that.

[shant121]

Originally Posted by tobyhede

Steve, you article does not clearly disclose that the Sign-Up is actually a referral.

Ok, maybe you have a point there. But me surprised that regular readers are that gullible. Steve has openly discussed several issues including how he makes money from the blog and how much. I see no reason for Steve to show symptoms of lightworker's syndrome, be a prude and not have referrals. When you sign up for that service, the referral number is right there, in bold and big font.

I am even more surprised at how much talk there is of what is and what is not 'noble', 'appropriate', etc and other terms like that. are people who write this stuff sooo 'noble' and clean hearted and pure etc etc that they expect the same from others?

[Bruce Achterberg]

Originally Posted by jpfieber

What's ironic is that as Steve has become more popular, and he's found more ways to make money, the quantity and quality of his posts has declined. When I first found this site I spent a lot of time reading his back posts, and every new post that came out sent me off on a new and interesting thought process. In the last couple months his posts have been few and far between, and the topics have been a little 'out there' for me (of course that's going to be a subjective thing).

So, when Steve was living off just Adsense and donations, he was doing fine. Now he's spending time milking the system, and I'm not finding him helpful anymore...

In order to understand some of Steve's posts, I've learnt how to get a pretty good idea of where Steve is currently at in his life, as well as what led him to this point. I may not have a 100% accurate picture, but it at least takes into the account the bigger picture of where Steve has been, where he is now (from what he tells us about that), and where he says he wants to go. I don’t just look at one of his posts (which is merely a snapshot of Steve) and make judgements based on that since that is a pretty bad way to gather information to draw conclusions. It’s like looking at 5 minutes of a 2 hour-long movie and saying that the movie sucks.

When I look at the "quality" of the posts he's making now and compare them to his older posts, I don't see a difference in quality, I see a difference in focus. Another thing I see is that Steve seems to be starting to embrace his value, and I believe you're going to see examples of this by Steve producing info products to sell, building his business, and trying to reach more people and build a greater audience. Steve has openly admitted that he initially wanted to build traffic to his website (hence the large amount of posts he made), and now that he’s done that, he’s putting that traffic to good use and expanding his efforts further. Personally, Steve’s motives while doing this are irrelevant to me. If Steve is offering a quality service (whether you have to pay for it or not), if I find it useful, I will invest in it (either with my time, my attention, or my money).

It’s quite likely that while you are seeing fewer posts on his blog, Steve is busy working on other projects behind the scenes, and we’ll probably begin to see evidence of this as Steve continues to expand further. I’m not sure if you noticed, but the same thing happened with the forums. When Steve is busy working on other projects, he posts less blog posts, and just like when I am busy, I post fewer posts on the forums here, maybe even shorter posts. Now it’s quite easy to draw conclusions about how many posts I make on the forum and the length of such posts and say things like “Bruce is posting less, he doesn’t care about the forums anymore”, or “Bruce is posting less, he must have just been doing it for the attention”, but it’s quite likely that I’m just busy working on other things. I may even be busy working on something for the forums that I will post at a later date. And I’d be willing to bet that the same thing is probably true of Steve.

Expecting Steve (or anyone else for that matter) to constantly meet my expectations is going to leave my continuously disappointed when he appears to have “changed”, so I generally don’t bother making expectations like that. Just like everyone else in life, Steve is going to do what Steve can do. I can compare Steve and what he does to my own preferences and be disappointed if he doesn’t match up, but that’s going to cause me unnecessary, self-induced suffering. It’s near impossible to control other people to a realistic, reasonable degree, so I just let “what is” be “what is” and worry about my own pursuits.

Overall, I think everyone just needs to chill out a bit. It’s fine to have an opinion and draw conclusions, but you don’t necessarily need to act on them -- especially when they are potentially inaccurate. Let Steve do what he wants to do. Let him be wrong and make mistakes. Let him be right and experience success. Let him scam people and make money for his own self interest. Let him devote his life to service to the greater good out of selflessness. It’s quite easy to put Steve on a pedestal, but really, he’s just a mortal like the rest of us, dealing with similar challenges and making the same decisions that most of us have to make. I think some people forget that when they see Steve deviate from the perfect mental model that they hold of him and fail to realise that under everything, Steve's just a fellow human being trying to life life the only way he knows how.

[Bruce Achterberg]

Originally Posted by ArthurHung

^ People, please take a good look at aaronmp2003's post. This is a good example of healthy feedback/criticism. There is no need to attack the character of the individual's opinion that you dislike. Steve or not-Steve.

You don't have to follow my suggestion, but please consider it. I just feel that it generates better mutually beneficial discussion. And as others have said, if you don't like an article, you can always just read something else.

I just wanted to quote this post for emphasis since I felt it was very worthy of it.

What you need to consider when you make a post about something is "why" you are making the post. It's easy to get caught up in a reaction to what somebody has said/done, but before posting, try to ask yourself "why" you are making the post.

If you are genuinely interested in assisting Steve, some healthy feedback/criticism is one of the best ways of doing it (to see an example, click here). The very purpose of these forums is for members to help each other learn and grow, and as Steve is a member of these forums, if you are genuinely interested in assisting Steve, giving him some healthy feedback/criticism is probably a very good use of your time

But if you find that your desire to post is more about Steve not meeting your expectations or preferences, I'd personally not worry about posting and re-channel that energy to more constructive pursuits. Think of what you'd rather be doing and go do that instead of spending time making a post that may make you feel a little better, but will probably pale in comparison to how much better you could have felt if you did something you really enjoy/wanted to do.

[Bruce Achterberg]

Originally Posted by tobyhede

Steve, you article does not clearly disclose that the Sign-Up is actually a referral.

I could be misinterpreting what you are saying, but I think the article does disclose that the sign up is a referral (correct me if I'm wrong, guys). I quote:

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina, 'Earn Passive Income While Web Surfing'

I’m using my referral link in all the Agloco links in this post, so if you click one of my links and sign up, you’ll automatically become part of my network of referrals. Whether you want to do that or not is entirely up to you.

Source: http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/200...e-web-surfing/

The Agloco links in the article also link to a page that clearly states:

Referral User ID: BBDC3820

Source: https://www.agloco.com/web/guest/sig...BBDC3820&lang=

Edit: From all my posts in this thread it probably looks like I'm pro-Agloco (I don't even have an account!) or pro-Steve (I don't think Steve needs me to promote/defend him... over 1 million visitors... yep), but really, I just find this topic interesting. If anything, I'm pro-people relaxing and enjoying life instead of freaking out over everything, heh.

[Keith]

Okay, call me thick but I don't quite understand how installing an Agloco viewbar that displays ads relates to the spectacularly ugly content links in Steve's latest Blog post. I can clearly see them already even though I don't have the viewbar so how does the viewbar tie in?

BTW Steve, given how hideous the content ad links are, you've got a potential revenue stream in a paid subscription that displays your site without the ontent ads...

[Jacobm]

I would like to thank Bruce Achterberg for your answer to the questions posed earlier, and also your subsequent posts that have helped get things in perspective for me.

I am fairly new to Steve's website, and am currently in the process of going through his archives, but I don't feel this is out of character for him (in particular, I am reminded of his ING Direct referals and his suggestion to move to an internet phone-line). I have no problem with these kind of posts, as I know Steve is providing value in many different ways, as Bruce has already pointed out.

Regarding the content-ad links - like the flashing picture ads, I find these horrible to look at and distracting from the content of the page. However, I use Mozilla Firefox with the Ad-Block Extension so I have the luxury of being able to choose to block them out. I highly recommend Firefox for people who would like more control over their internet experience!

p.s. Shant121 - good point about Steve not being a prude and succumbing to lightworker syndrome!

[Andrew Russell]

TANSTAAFL.

Steve has said so himself.


Aside from that, I have concerns about privacy implications and the economic sense of the "product". I also have concerns that (what I assume to be) Steve's latest revenue experiments (this and the in-text ads) are seriously diluting the value of his website.

[ludlow]

The ContentLink ads radically reduce my enjoyment of this site. Please don't make them a regular feature. (And before Bruce tells me to calm down: I'm not angry, just providing Steve with one data point for how posts like this prompt some visitors to consider visiting less.)

[Bruce Achterberg]

Originally Posted by Jacobm

Regarding the content-ad links - like the flashing picture ads, I find these horrible to look at and distracting from the content of the page. However, I use Mozilla Firefox with the Ad-Block Extension so I have the luxury of being able to choose to block them out. I highly recommend Firefox for people who would like more control over their internet experience!

Another way to avoid the Kontera ads (the "content-ad links" you talk about) is by signing up to Steve's blog via his RSS feed and viewing his posts that way.

You used to be able to be able to do a print preview of Steve's articles and have a nicely formatted page to view and/or print out, but unfortunately the Kontera ads show up in the print preview and slightly mess with formatting of the text. Not sure whether or not Steve is aware of this (I just found out then), but Steve's just doing a trial of the ads, so if he decides to keep them I'll bring it up then.

If you (or anyone else for that matter) really don’t like the Kontera ads, I’d suggest you don’t click on them. It’s highly likely that Steve will ditch them if he finds they A) aren’t that profitable, and B) are alienating a large portion of his website audience, so make your vote by simply ignoring them, or even clicking on the Ad-sense ads instead and showing Steve that they are a superior, and more preferred method of monetising his website.

Good thing is that, as Steve says in this thread, he still plans to move away from the ad-based business model for his website and move towards a more direct sales-based model, so it’s quite possible that soon we will have very few (or maybe even no) ads to contend with. Personally I'd much rather support Steve by paying him for high quality, in-depth content that explores things in even more detail then what he writes about in his blog.

Originally Posted by ludlow

The ContentLink ads radically reduce my enjoyment of this site. Please don't make them a regular feature.

Steve stated in this thread that he was doing a 30 day trial for the Kontera ads (the ones you speak about) to see how they did in terms of ad revenue and usability, so if you have any feedback (such as what you mention in your post), now would probably be the time to make Steve aware of it.

Originally Posted by Ludlow

(And before Bruce tells me to calm down: I'm not angry, just providing Steve with one data point for how posts like this prompt some visitors to consider visiting less.)

Hehe. I hope people aren't reading my posts and thinking "he's a moderator, I better be careful of what I post", because I fully didn't intend for them to come across that way. I left my moderator authority at the door when I made those posts and was posting as a regular member of the community. It’s unfortunate that my rather laid back, light hearted nature doesn’t really come through much in my posts, but that comes with the territory of text based communication. If you'd like an idea of what it would be like to speak to me in-person, my states generally range from: ...to: ...to: (Hehe. )

Ultimately, calming people down wasn't really my goal with the posts I made. Rather, I was trying to make people aware of the different ways to look at things and maybe show that everything is generally not as bad as it seems (“good” and “bad” are very subjective by nature), and that even if it is, giving attention to it isn’t the most constructive of pursuits and that people would be much better of focusing on what they like/enjoy rather then what they don’t (unless somehow you derive pleasure/enjoyment from focusing on what you don't enjoy ).

I see great potential in both this forum as well as the rather unique and amazingly diverse community that it has developed, and I believe we’d have an outstanding resource on our hands with the forum if everyone channelled their energy and attention towards the most constructive pursuits they are capable of. I'd love to see the forums and the community move more in that direction as I think it would be of great benefit to a great number of people and would really make the forum shine.

Really, behind every one of my posts, what I'm really trying to do is be the best I can be and help others as much as I can to do the same. Sometimes that can be quite the challenge, but it's a challenge I gladly welcome.

[nvictor]

I have posted my agloco affiliate link on this forum many times. Nobody clicked even once... That's why I got discouraged.

Here it is

Will I have more luck now that Steve has talked about it

[CannibalSmith]

Ads and pyramid scheme in one package, ugh! On the second thought, I wonder if I can hack it.

[joylangtry]

Hey, Steve, thanks for posting about AGLOCO. I think it's pretty funny that people are getting so bent out of shape about it. I actually signed up from Darren Rowse's link about 2 months ago, and he got all kinds of heat about his AGLOCO post, too.

I agree with you that there is some great potential in this, and it could also flop, too. But everything I've read from the AGLOCO site and blog feels just fine to me. Ultimately, I'm relying on my gut here, and that hasn't failed me yet.

I decided, when I started promoting AGLOCO, that I would only do it in ways that feel good to me, and resulted in fun for me. My referral network isn't huge like the big-name bloggers, but I'm happy with the 50 in my extended network. I'm pleased to have gotten involved in this pre-launch and I expect that when the viewbar is finally available, my network will probably double or triple, and it will be even more fun to watch it explode.

No such thing as a free lunch? Yeah, sure there is. It's all a matter of perception. The clue is to actually believe that there can be a free lunch if you want it... then they'll show up. A good way to start is to buy somebody else lunch, so they have a free one. That starts the ball rolling...

Speaking of free lunches.... what is Steve's blog? OK, it's not lunch, but it's free. For those who complain that the quality of his posts has declined, here's a thought: go write your own. Be brilliant, be witty, contribute to the world in just the way you desire. That's way more constructive than posting your criticism here. Although, the lively exchange of ideas are good, too.

It's all good.

So, Steve & Erin, thanks for creating this great community, and for putting yourselves out there, and acting on faith. And have fun with AGLOCO. It should be a hoot to see where this all goes.

Love,
Joy

[YouseffTheSheep]

Has a pyramid scheme ever really helped anyone but the few who founded it?

[WillT]

There are many sites that dissect this issue. Here is one worth reading that has an opposite view from Steve.

What Everyone Ought to Know About Agloco

.

[joylangtry]

Originally Posted by YouseffTheSheep

Has a pyramid scheme ever really helped anyone but the few who founded it?

"A pyramid scheme (also known as "Pyramid Scam") is a non-sustainable business model that involves the exchange of money primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, usually without any product or service being delivered. " From Wikipedia

AGLOCO is not a pyramid scheme, it is free to join. It's not MLM, there is no product to purchase. It involves a referral network. Woo hoo.

[LaraLobosch]

Originally Posted by Caveman Joe

Hmm. This smells like 2000 to me. Stuff like this was springing up all over the place just prior to the Dot-Com Crash, and the same sort of businesses are starting up again now.
I'm surprised at Steve for recommending this - what value does it add to the Internet? How does it encourage useful discussion, free exchange of information or the forming of new ideas?
I fully expect another .com crash either this year or next - my current prediction is June 2008. Shall we start taking bets on the exact date?

What value do you add and what are you attracting by posting the above?

[Caveman Joe]

Originally Posted by LaraLobosch

What value do you add and what are you attracting by posting the above?

Advice, a differening opinion, recommendations, debate, discussion, critique, whatever you want to take from it. As the link says, "Discuss this post in the Steve Pavlina Forums." Hopefully I'll attract a bit of waryness of what people choose to do with their personal data, attention, reputation, time and efforts - this is not, after all, a truly "free" scheme. You're just giving up a different form of currency.
(as an aside, a friend of mine suspects that in a few years' time, our data will be as valuable as our money - there may be many more people making a living just from allowing companies to observe them. A scary thought in some ways, but I'd like to know what others think about it)
If my readers or users thought I was heading down the wrong path, I'd sure as hell want to know about it. If I wasn't a fan of Steve's blog, I wouldn't bother to post.

[Keith]

Originally Posted by Keith

I don't quite understand how installing an Agloco viewbar that displays ads relates to the spectacularly ugly content links in Steve's latest Blog post. I can clearly see them already even though I don't have the viewbar so how does the viewbar tie in?

Can someone answer this, please?