The Bitter Sweet Paradox of The Symphony of Making Money Online
Having entered into my second year of blogging in the MMO niche (make money online niche) I have seen a lot of old faces leave and new faces enter into the MMO arena. I have seen claimed successful bloggers bite the dust and sentence their blogs to death while I have seen noobies climb the ladder and become small yet volatile leaders within the niche despite being clueless. Accountability lies not only in others but also myself.
MMO niche is a very diverse group, but one of the most common things I see in the majority of the people who follow, publish and socialize within this niche is the fact that many are simply leaderless followers who want to cling to people who do the best job of shoe shining their worshiping idol.
I am serious. It’s out with the old and in with the new. But the only problem is that the new is just a recirculation of the same things the old has already talked about. The only difference is that the blog (e.g. the worshiping idol) gets shinier and flashier everyday, yet the content remains the same.
The majority of the MMO niche consists of three classes of people:
- Class One MMO Blogger: The people who want to learn how to make money.
- Class Two MMO Blogger: The people who don’t make a lot of money online but act as leader and teacher in the niche.
- Class Three MMO Blogger: The people who create bogus products and services and make money online.
Now with that being said, lets talk about some trends in people within the MMO niche.
The people who want to make money online (class one mmo bloggers) are naive and end up buying affiliate promoted products from the people who don’t make a lot of money online (class two mmo blogger) but act as leaders and teachers within the industry whom are enabling the people who create the bogus products and services (class three mmo blogger) to make the money.
That is really all it boils down to. As noobies wise up and start to see the common trend of how most people are making money online, soon they upgrade their status from being a class one mmo blogger to a class two mmo blogger and almost over night they launch the next MMO blog and sail off into the blogosphere, running at flank speed to catch up to the other class two MMO vessels.
From that point on, the newly promoted class two mmo blogger gets a small taste of money after having sent thousands of class one mmo bloggers to affiliate based products being promoted under their referral ID. Soon after the class two mmo blogger comes to the realization that marketing someone else’s bogus product can be duplicated, they take it upon themselves to create their own bogus product. At that point in time, the class two mmo blogger now officially becomes a class three mmo blogger and the life cycle is refreshed and soon comes a new generation of class one mmo bloggers.
The newly promoted class three mmo bloggers can then promote their newly produced bogus mmo products down to the newly promoted class two mmo bloggers and also to the existing class two bloggers who were slow to learn and stayed at their current rank, all of which will then over saturate the market, selling to the next generation class one mmo bloggers.
During this whole chain or life cycle of the MMO blogger, the same content, the same tactical strategies and the same information is simply getting washed, recycled and recirculated on the blogs of the class two mmo bloggers.
The end result is the fact that as new mmo bloggers are born into the system, new blogs are created, new blog designs are developed, new mailing lists are established, and yet one thing always remains the same… and that is the fundamental content and business model that pumps life into the MMO niche remains the same.
This is the everlasting gobstopper, this is the ironic yet real paradox of the MMO niche, this is ultimately the nuclear fusion that splits the atom and produces an endless life of energy and circulation while dumping waste into the minds of thousands.
For those who just laced up your shoes and stepped into the mmo arena, I welcome you; however, you should have brought roller skates, because there are hundreds if not thousands of people who will be taking you for a ride. The paradox of the make money online niche, it’s bitter sweet symphony.
The Verve
Bittersweet Symphony Lyrics
‘Cause it’s a bittersweet symphony, this life
Trying to make ends meet
You’re a slave to money then you die
I’ll take you down the only road I’ve ever been down
You know the one that takes you to the places
where all the veins meet yeah
No change, I can’t change
I can’t change, I can’t change
But I’m here in my mind
I am here in my mind
But I’m a million different people
from one day to the next
I can’t change my mind
No, no, no, no, no, no, no,no,no,no,no,no(fading away)
Well I never pray
But tonight I’m on my knees yeah
I need to hear some sounds that recognize the pain in me, yeah
I let the melody shine, let it cleanse my mind, I feel free now
But the airways are clean and there’s nobody singing to me now
No change, I can’t change
I can’t change, I can’t change
But I’m here in my mind
I am here in my mind
And I’m a million different people
from one day to the next
I can’t change my mind
No, no, no, no, no, no, no
I can’t change
I can’t change it
‘Cause it’s a bittersweet symphony, this life
Trying to make ends meet
Trying to find some money then you die
I’ll take you down the only road I’ve ever been down
You know the one that takes you to the places
where all the veins meet yeah
You know I can’t change, I can’t change
I can’t change, I can’t change
But I’m here in my mind
I am here in my mind
And I’m a million different people
from one day to the next
I can’t change my mind
No, no, no, no, no
I can’t change my mind
no, no, no, no, no,
I can’t change
Can’t change my body,
no, no, no
I’ll take you down the only road I’ve ever been down
I’ll take you down the only road I’ve ever been down
Been down
Ever been down
Ever been down
Ever been down
Ever been down
That you’ve ever been down
That you’ve ever been down
Tags: Bitter Sweet Blogging, Bitter Sweet Money, Everlasting GobStopper, Make Money Online Bloggers, Make Money Online Niche, Making Money Online, Making Money Online Blogging, Paradox of Affiliate Programs, Paradox of Internet Marketing, Paradox of Making Money Online
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Sharp analysis Garry. You hit the nail IMHO.
I’ve a question for you.
This is not the first post in which you write about how the MMO niche is such a difficult niche where it is rare to find a friend. What does motivate you to fight (sorry, blog) every day in this arena (sorry, niche) ?
Which is your ultimate goal ?
Is it only money ?
Isn’t easier to make money in other niches ?
Have a great day
ciao
alexander
I agree with Alexander. You are a standard bearer for the MMO niche why not just back off and make your money on your other business or take an easier niche and run with it. With your ability and work ethic you would thrive in any niche.
Garry,
Another excellent post
— so, what is your advice to bloggers that want to avoid this trap?
Regards,
Mark
@ Alex,
My goals are to put a stop to the stupidity virus that infects many of the people on Earth. LOL!!! Actually, if you just scroll up and read the header graphic, thats that plan and I am sticking to it.
@ Mark,
I can’t back away, back down or disengage. People are getting robbed out of the little amount of money they have left when they spend it on the hopes of chasing a dream. The ironic situation is that the person selling the product was in the same boat as the person attempting to buy it not too long ago.
Once you buy, you discover and regret, from there you tuck your tail and do what everyone else does and sell the same scam that you wasted your money on in an attempt to catch up. People say, “well, if I was stupid enough to buy it, then I am sure others are too!” Therefore they work towards trying to make their money back. Unfortunately, this is part of the never ending cycle.
@ Mark,
My advice is simple:
Don’t become one of these idiots and these idiots who tend to post comments like these on other blogs defending their mistakes because they have too much pride to admit that they got scammed.
Congrats to The Big Zeal who promoted himself from a class one mmo blogger to a class two and congrats to Adam Holland for simply bypassing class two and going straight for mmo blogger class three.
I guess Big Zeal purchased the famous Reverse Funnel system and soon discovered that the way to make money with the program is by reselling it. How’s that working for ya Big Z? LOL!!!
Adam Holland isn’t going to tell anyone that he feels like he made a $1200+ dollar mistake. So instead he has no choice but to participate and promote the scam so that he can make his money back. That includes having to justify the product and invest time into attempting to tell others that the program indeed is real and not a scam.
@Garry
You eluded my question about what motivates you to try to be a leader in the MMO niche, but thanks anyway for your answer ( and the posts which you provide for us).
ciao
alexander
My thoughts are just running free…
aren’t all products on which you can earn comissions in any case ending to be sold in at every cost ?
- if they’re good: you want to share the hot stuff with everybody (because in this way you can earn money)
- if they’re bad: you want at least recover your money, so you try to promote the product (because in this way you can earn money)
So I guess the only way to be sure someone is pushing a product from heart is if there is no interest in gaining comissions.
It happened to me once: I’m really very happy with an outlining software (called “Bonsai”) for my Palm and the desktop. I ask the softwarehouse Natara if the have an affiliate program, because I’m happy with the software and that i was willing to promote it, because I’m a satisfied customer. They answered me that they are afraid about all the affiliates programs and that if a customer is really happy with their software, he would promote it also without affiliate program… and so I did with an article three posts long.
ciao
alexander
Hi Gary,
Thanks for the sobering post. I’ve been exploring this MMO niche for almost a month now, and I can see what you mean with the 3 levels of bloggers. I suspect that if you want to start a blog from scratch, and you’re not interested in becoming a level 3 blogger, you’d be well advised to blog about just about any other subject than MMO. It’s something I’m definitely thinking about anyway.
- Dave
There is so much people can blog about. Ironically, a lot of people feel that they have to become a MMO superstar in order to make money online, where in reality, all they need to do is blog about things that truly interest them in their lives.
Internet marketers, venture partners, and MMO bloggers remind me of network marketers (pyramid schemes).
1-Only those at the top who are already established are making any money
2-Everyone sells products to each other
3-There is no real market for their products beyond their network of subscribers and friends.
Indeed, its a pretty wild picture to see from above and beyond the trenches.
@ Alex,
Oops, not intentionally. Here let me try to better answer that question. I think that making money on the Internet can be a wonderful thing. However, it seems to be more predominate to attempt to do so, thinking that things will just come easy without much work involved.
In my opinion, what tends to happen is that people take the easy way out and default towards acting like a two bit car salesman. And in many cases, I think these people would actually make more money on the car lot versus online.
I don’t have all the answers and I don’t have all to solutions. But what I do have is a personal track record of my previous trials and errors and a life learning experience to share with others.
I am here to show people that you can indeed develop sites that actually help people rather than trick people. The MMO niche is actually quite small compared to others. There are a lot of successful blogs that have really no idea of this childish little circle of a few hundred blogs or so.
I’d like to help change people’s views on what it takes to make money online. Many people who have an interest in making money online with a blog will do their first rounds of search on Google or Yahoo, etc… and then stumble upon the fleet of MMO blogs that exist. They then feel like, “Oh so this is what I need to do to make money online… I need to get my own MMO blog and start acting as if I am an MMO expert” while this is far from the truth.
Many people simply fail to put two and two together by take their personal interests and using that as a foundation to fuel their blogs. Money can be made from any niche topic, products can be bought and sold from any blog regardless of topic.
I was speaking with a newer reader of my blog last night in fact about the same thing. He communicated to me that he was frustrated with the fact that he wasn’t selling ads on his blog. He had told me that he has invested a lot of time and energy into setting up the system and promoting the service, yet no one bought his ad.
I explained to him, look at who you’re trying to sell to. You’re trying to sell to other people who too have their own banner ads whom are trying to sell the same thing to you. It’s stupid… I then added, “If you were to invest only 10% of the time, energy and self commitment you put forth on your MMO blog and apply that to another niche blog, you’ll win… you’ll make money.”
Do I speak from experience? I think so… Because I am a walking example of how money can be made outside this devilish MMO niche. See: Optical Blog, Airplane Blog and Blog The Internet for examples.
These three blogs require little to no time invested. The first two blogs I write on many once or twice every two weeks and the last one doesn’t require much research or time invested per post, also I have a very special friend writing on it for me.
I guess to summarize… my motivation is to help people by showing them that they can make money online simply by being who they are as real individuals and not feel like they have to be someone they are not, by faking being an expert in an area they are not familiar with.
Really, I still hold to what I said last year. If you enjoy wood working, start a wood working blog and monetize it with products you believe in and use yourself. If you work in the lawn maintenance industry, start a lawn maintenance blog and provide your insight about the industry, etc… If you don’t want to blog about work, because work sucks, then blog about things that you have a personal interest in. Perhaps you enjoy riding horses, then launch a blog about horses, perhaps you enjoy skydiving… OMG that would be a blog I’d read daily… imagine the FlickR pictures the author would make available.
Anyway thanks for probing one last time to gets some answers out of me.
“make money online simply by being who they are as real individuals and not feel like they have to be someone they are not, by faking being an expert in an area they are not familiar with”
Best couple of sentances I have read in quite some time Garry. Though I will say this, maybe I am not any different than many others. I have few things that really Drive me, you know get the fire in the head going. Call it a passion or just personal interests. What I suspect is that many of the MMO bloggers you referance suffer this lasck of passion or fire in the head for something in life. Not long ago I engaged in an email exchange with someone from my list. I have quite a few very cool people on my list. Anyways this one individual really didnt have any personal interests or hobbies. He was asking if I new of a way to find a money making niche. So of course I said or echoed a common sentiment go with what you know, or like then find out if it can be monetized by searching places like eaby and all the other common places to find what people are buying. My point is I guess, that alot of people are stuck in the rut of life with no real personal purpose for getting out of bed other to pay the rent or bills. I have a few sort of obscure interests. But am curious about a great many things. And I thing this is where alot pf “noobs” come apart when it comes to starting an online business.
A.) Theres no real business model, or at least none that I have seen.
B.) There’s no REAL business plan for starting an online business.
C.) And I think this is seriuosly lacking. I am a plumber have been for 12 years or so now and I had to apprentice for a good five years. Lucky for me I started out with an old timer who knew what he was doing and didnt take short cuts and didnt rip people off. I wish there was an apprenticing sort of thing. LOL hey Garry can I be your apprentice. But seriously. I learned my trade by hard work and learning under someone who the did the right things and not just the quick and dirty way to do it. I’ve actually been fired because I refused to do a jop cheap and sloppy. Anyways I might be rambling but this has been percolating in my head for quite sometime. I could have taken a much different route in my blogging adventures My best friend is a hacker for the govt, theyre called internet security analysts. He basically could of had me go the route of spammer cloaker idiots to fame and fortune. But I didnt, damned morals !!
I may not be a huge income earner and never post income reports or traffic reports I just figure people could less what I make or dont I know I really dont care when other blogger brag about their stuff. If I dont have an answer to a question I just I dont know but can find the answer for you.
I personally dont have a problem with people wanting to blog about things they know little about or cant themselves do. Hell I talk about Hockey ad infinitum do I play, no I’m not an nhl’r anyways But I do see your point and it is valid, when you’re fleeecing people and posing.
Want an apprentice Garry?
“you can do it fast and you can do it right but they’re not always the same thing”
@Shane,
I started taking on mentoring students last week for free. I found something interesting: Many of them won’t take the time to complete the most basic tasks even though it will put them on the path to making huge money online in their niche.
No matter what niche you choose it takes action to make money. Knowledge is only effective when it is applied.
@Garry,
There are some of us who have made serious money online and don’t fall into any of the three groups mentioned. Almost everything I sell and have sold fits into one or more of the “self-help” niches–including weight loss, making money, stopping smoking, overcoming depression, relationships, etc. If one sells products that provide real value in any niche–even MMO–then it isn’t a scam, it’s a helpful business.
My two cents.
@Aaron isnt that just whacked?
I dont understand people, I work with a guy who is 49, been a plumber for like 28 years and isnt liscenced yet. WTF. I really dont know what to say about things like that other than I guess some people just don’t get it? why go through all the work and then don’t do it !! I think it boils down to something I read some where about some people being info junkies, collectors who grab or buy stuff read and say wow thats cool info.
Yeah I get that theres info overload and analysis paralysis, but when you have one on one… do this then do that then do this other thing. You know step by step tutoring, and you’re not doing it?!?!?!?!
Crap after 12 years of plumbing I can pretty much do almost everything i need to on auto pilot, muscle memory and my head is busy doing something else. Robotis like Hahahahah never thought of myself as a robot before. Must frustrate you Aaron.
@Shane,
I’ll tell you an even more whacked story.
I had a guy call me who was convinced no one really makes money online selling information products unless they had a special expertise or were somehow “hooked up” with people already doing it.
I made him promise to do exactly what I told him to do.
In his first 45 days he made over $6,000 selling a product he had purchased rights to for $27. He created a list of 4000+ people in the marketing niche.
That’s not the whacked part.
Then, he quit. He didn’t do anything else. He just quit. He could have easily been making a solid $5-$8K per month, but he chose to quit.
Go figure.
That is my exact point. You’re not banking on doing the whole MMO thing selling crappy eBooks, etc…
You have positioned yourself within other niches and provide a service for them. The above doesn’t apply to the three classifications.
WTF !!!
Hahahaha, now thats WHACKED. I’d happily go on , and on like the energizer bunny if I were that nut bar.
Man that just drives me nuts and its not the first time I have heard something like that. I heard something similar oh about a year or so ago from a blogger, got to know him a bit actually he was making some good cheese and quit to school to be an accountant. Is it the work or just seeking something something comfortable? who knows!!
This post has been featured in FullTiltBlogging.com’s Daily Blog Summary today. Great post!
Thanks for the answer Garry
I try to stay off the topic of MMO on my blog unless I feel it is truly worth my readers looking at as a slightly different post - maybe it would inspire them to take up blogging like a tech blog inspired me to.
haha.. something out of common sense and well presented article.
When I first looked at “MMO” keyword in bold i thought you are talking about mega multiplayer online.
anyways MMO niche is like hollows (don’t ask me what that term means .. its from an anime) .. there are lots of them to start with .. out of them few have will power and they proclaim themselves as leaders .. those around them .. start worshiping the leader .. and those who are really powerful think all the ones below lack common sense and need guidance
mega multiplayer online sounds like a much more productive topic to blog about rather the make money online.