Hey guys Have you guys come across www.blogertizeworld.com Its minting money like crazy. Apparently this site has 1500 bloggers registered in last 6 months and they'll share their profit with the bloggers registered with them Check out the following articles: http://www.rediff.com/getahead/2009/feb/09blog-your-way-to-your-bank.htm http://www.mid-day.com/news/2009/ja...ation-story-J-P-Morgan-advertising-portal.htm I believe it has a potential of giving blogcatalog and entrecard a run for their money. Recently it transferred to a new domain www.blogertizeworld.com for some reason. no idea why.. The site still is in BETA version and will officially launch on May 31 2009 (Source - FAQ of the site) Your thoughts???
Yea.. I came across this site in Dec itself on digg. I liked the concept and invested $80 in it. At that time the company did not disclose the business model. Its only some 4 days ago since the site has come up with the new BETA version. I really don't care about a commission via an online shopping portal. I look at it as an investment for 3 years. With $80, I get the share in profits + traffic via their site for 3 years. So I thought why not give it a try. But the only thing over here is the perfect execution of the business model. If the company achieves that then there are chances that blogger members recover their investment in first year itself and start making money from second year onwards. As far as competing with BC ane entrecard is concerned, I think only time will tell if blogertizeworld could beat them since the other 2 websites have been online since quite a while now.
True dat. Its too early to compare BC and entrecard with blogertizeworld but the potential is definitely there. The concept is quite unique and if Im not mistaken this is the first time a blogger startup is sharing its profits with the bloggers. Haven't come across any other startup which does that. But you're right only time will tell how it fares but as of now it looks quite strong.
Sounds like a ponzy scheme to me. I'd be very cautious. I couldn't make sense of the FAQ. Lots of promises, no specifics. Who is behind this? There is no address on the site. The privacy policy does not contain a legal name of the entity, which for a contract is wrong... But so much effort was put into the site, it looks real. So which is it? Real or rip-off?
I was thinking the same but didn't want to be the first to say it. Also, our friend above is willing to place a 3 year investment in a site that had it's domain registered last week and for a year. To be fair, everyone needs a leg up, even if they do approach things like Laurel and Hardy.
Wow, you invested $80 in a start up company with no contact information that is half way around the world (from me) in India ? Anytime someone used phrases like "Minting Money", it automatically conjures up "scam", "MLM", "Ponzy" defenses, since they use similar language and established companies that actually are doing well, don't. I wish you luck with the investment and of course in life you have to take chances if you want success, but, what is so different about this company over other blog marketplace, rev share, membership, take over the world type companies from the past that have fallen into the deep abyss of bright eyed enthusiasm? That's funny I can tell you why, because it would be nearly impossible to get American and other Western bloggers to trust sending money to an Indian start up given the extreme amount of spam now coming from that country from new social network sites, SEO services, and Content writers...many of which are scraping contact emails from profiles right here at DP.
I beg to differ over here The site was launched in Sep 08 with a domain name of www.blogertize.in I think it was basically for Indian bloggers but with its success, it is now also attracting bloggers worldwide. Have a look at the alexa raking of www.blogertize.in - Had a good movement thru out its launch. As far as it being a ponzy scheme is concerned, comeon now have a look at the business model - quite compelling I'd say unline a ponzy scheme which has no business model per se P.S - I too invested $40 in ths site. It's worth a try since the services are quite unique and genuinly allows bloggers to make some extra bucks out of it
Hey guys I bumped into this thread a couple of hrs ago and saw some mixed reactions. I decided to do some research before commenting on this forum (my boss is on leave today ) These are my findings of last 90mins or so http://www.rediff.com/getahead/2009/feb/09blog-your-way-to-your-bank.htm - Leading portal of India (Alexa rank 66) - Can't be a paid one http://www.mid-day.com/news/2009/ja...ation-story-J-P-Morgan-advertising-portal.htm - Front page news in a reputed daily -A friend of mine from office read it - Can't be a paid one He also told me that CNBC Awaaz (Hindi news channel in India) also covered a story on it http://www.hindustantimes.com/Story...4-47b8-8cdb-3297f3196d56&Headline=Money+sense - Article in national newspaper - Can't be a paid one but not sure Reviews that I could find while googling around http://www.eazycheezy.net/2008/12/blogertize-adspace-in-pixel-form.html (Dec 08) http://kixtrix.com/2009/01/03/give-your-blog-an-edge-with-blogertize/ (Dec 08) http://nidddles.wordpress.com/2009/01/29/blogertizein-–-pros-and-cons/ (Jan 09) http://smallbusinesswebology.com/sm...promotion/blogertize-invest-today-or-run-away (Dec 08) There were some more - Just google arnd u'll find em Other stats http://www.killerstartups.com/Marketing/blogertize-in-monetize-your-blog-or-forum - 155 votes(Oct 2008) http://dataopedia.com/blogertize-in - Decent stats for a BETA version site. http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/blogertize.in - Alexa rank - good movement thruout launch I also found loads of press releases, digg, reditt and mixx articles The concept is unique and it looks so attractive that ppl become suspicious about it. I couldn't find a catch in the business model but if someone else finds it - please share it here. I think its genuine- If a blogger doesn't mind spending a little to monetize their blog, he/she shd go for it. If u are convined with the business model go for the largest button costing $150.. if u're not but wanaa invest for experiments sake - go for the smallest one - $15. Its a one time payment for 3 year adspace. Shouldn't harm much. If u still think that it doesn't make sense just chill. If this works u'l regretand if it fails u can say "SEE I TOLD YA" to those who invested Anyway, I'm tired and goin for a coffee break. Lemme know ur thoughts Cheerrrzzzz Mikeeey
My only problem with these type of sites is they seem to attract other bloggers and for the most part that is NOT a converting niche...it's just others looking for traffic and revenue. If it was more of a portal that attracted the average surfer or consumer, I could see me investing. As I look around the site, there doesn't seem to be anything that the average consumer would be interested in if they don't have a website or blog, so where is the benefit here, over spending money to market elsewhere. Sure the traffic seems to be there, but, it is the same with every well put together "magic formula" that promises to bring struggling website owners traffic and sales. Also, the large majority of that traffic is from India, which is the largest growing segment of new webmasters and bloggers going right now, kind of like U.S. traffic was with new webmasters 5 years ago. So I can't doubt the legitimacy of the offer, but after being around for a while, it still looks like all the others that have come before it when the big blogging boom hit in the U.S. India is now going through the same thing with tons of new social networking sites, webmaster forums, Bollywood sites, etc, but unfortunately in the western world market it's all been done already. I don't know about the rest of you, but I get tons of spam from Indian webmasters and service providers everyday, and almost all of them are ideas and services that are already over saturated, or ideas that were started and tried here in the U.S. 4 or 5 years ago. It's just a natural progression when a new industry takes off in a region of the world, you go through the same developments...for instance India's "Bollywood" is blowing up now, sort of like our Hollywood did 70 years ago. Maybe if you are targeting bloggers and webmasters with services it would be a good investment to advertise, but if you are not.....plain and simple, bloggers don't buy...they browse looking for ideas, link exchanges and a place to comment for back links. Bloggers that are already making money, already have a formula where they have targeted their market successfully, and $150 spent wisely in PPC can bring hundreds in profit by the end of the week, not 3 years from now. So basically this is a start up, for start ups. JMO of course. edited: If it were more of a portal that attracted the "average joe", but had services for bloggers and independent webmasters on the back end to generate the content, shopping and information, then I could see it being successful, but right now it is purely a bloggers commune and that business model has already failed multiple times.
Technically, the title of this thread is correct: "a startup minting money". The startup is making money, not you. As the previous poster pointed out, you pay $80 but you don't get anything in exchange. Traffic? What traffic? Why do you even believe that this will drive thousands of viewers to your blog? This is at best a lottery.
Not only that, but come on...Pixels? What year is this ? Another red flag is, they have privacy on the registration, rejecting postal mail (why the secrecy?), and the domain is only registered until next year.! That's all I need, my flag is up forever now, even if at this point they change it. Serious oversight. Blogertize.in, the original domain, with supposedly all the traffic, is only registered until August., and was only registered for the first time last August. (Again 1 year) So they want me to make a 3 year commitment, when they themselves have not even made one with their own company. Even the best scammers register for years out, just to give the appearance of longevity. What's it cost ? $30 bucks to register your domain as long as your 3 year promise? Any good bot program can fake those Alexa traffic stats, especially since the forum only has 237 members registered...not exactly the "Success with Indian bloggers" that was boasted about..nor the "1500 bloggers registered in the last 6 months"....that also looks suspicious given the HUGE traffic that they are supposed to have.....so all these bloggers registered, maybe even invested some money and NOBODY joined the forum ? , and articles on Digg, and other bookmarking sites mean nothing, my mom can do that. If they only plan on being around for a year, and they con a few hundred American webmasters to send $80-$300 bucks a pop (on Pixels at that..a concept that was outdated 8 years ago when it was hot), and then disappear when the registration runs out, that's a lot of scratch converted back into Rupees. I know I'm not going to India to find them, nor if their law enforcement even cares. Who do you sue in India when you have a business problem ? I'm sorry but all the flash websites, with the best designers in the world couldn't make me spend $80-$300 on a 3 year Pixel square, posted on a site that is only registered for one year. Too sketchy for me. These people really insult my intelligence. Everything about this say's that they are going to take the money and run, probably around the same time the ".com" expires
@hmansfield - Buddy all the queries that u've raised could be a possibility but you're not looking at the facts around. I mean the points u've made are all assumptions. - This site is more like a household name in India. As someone mentioned earlier, he was interviewed by CNBC Awaaz.. now thats quite credible. I have never seen any pixel website (apart frm MDHP) get such coverage. Infact there were 2 Indian ripoffs of MDHP - both of them were a huge fiasco. They came they went - no one knew about it - If you google around - infact even if u go thru the research above - only one review was done by an Indian blogger - one from California, one from NZ and other from also outside India. If u google around, u'll find a couple of more reviews done by those outside India - Again the point that u've made about the site vanishing away after one year. U say this only coz the domain name is registered for a year. How can u be so sure that they won't be renewing it. This is a ridiculous assumption - This website is up for over 6 months. Do u think they'll fake it. I mean comeon you have to give this startup some credibility. I mean I really don't think they'll launch a new BETA version 6 months after launch if they were'nt making money - Your previous post I felt was an anti-Indian post. I mean, yes agreed that there is a lot of spam coming from this country but that doesn't mean that this startup is not genuine. These are 2 different issues that u're combining I personally feel the business model is quite interesting. Some of the benefits that blogger could derive - Profit sharing - These guys would share a proportion of profits to its bloggers from second year of operation. There are so many revenue streams these guys are exploring - online community, promotional quizzing portals, ad exchange networks, podcastng services, online shopping portal, online market place and bloggers advertising with the site will have a share in all the avenues. Now don't u think thats interesting coz this is the first time bloggers literally make some money without sloggin it out for 5-6 hrs a day dropping cards on entrecard or promoting blogs on BC or digg. - Commission via shopping portal - The site says that upto 75% of the profit would be distributed to the blogger who helps sell any Blogertize product - Free online stor - Those advertising with the site will get free online store for a year with the website. No fees on final convert or yearly charge. Now how many sites offer that. - Exposure via newsletter - The cpntent of the newsletter will be taken from the blogs advertising and the link to that blog would be placed in the newsletter as well. - Adnetwork exchange - Technoratimedia pays 60% of the ad revenue to bloggers while this site would pay 80% There might some other advantages which I may have missed. The business model is very strong but yes implementation of the same is what matters. I do agree that there is some risk involved but the benefits that could be derived outweighs the investment u may lose. I'm not saying its a sure shot hit formula but definitely something different and unique and honestly speaking I think its worth a try. Just my 2 cents
Wow.. amazing discussion goin on in here. @hmansfield and bloggermania If we combine your posts we get pros and cons of investing in blogertizeworld. Both of you'll have different but relevant points @hmansfield - Though some of ur points make sense - I think u've been a li'l harsh on this starup. as bloggermania rightly pointed out this startup has been getting media coverage and online reviews that means it is very much genuine. I just did not like the fact that u doubt the credibility of the startup just coz the owner is an Indian. That's a li'l racist comment from ur side. Though u may not have intended to but it sounded like one. @blogermania - I too agree with all the pros u've mentioned - the business model is very much impressive and unique and if it clicks bloggers can definitely make some extra bucks without much effort but again - execution of the business model is what matters. Another fact that I guess has been ignored is that the adspace is available to only 2860 bloggers and with millions of bloggers worldwide - getting 2000 odd bloggers fro this site shdn't be a problem. Do check out its FAQ if u guys have time Cheerz
Whoa, I am not prejudiced against Indian webmasters, or start ups, or Indian's period. I was merely pointing out that the explosions in web start ups coming from India is similar to what we experienced here in the U.S. back in the 90's, therefore some of the ideas are dated. Back then every kid with an idea, and every company with a $100 million start up investment was on the cover of every tech magazine and T.V. show......99% of them are all gone now. We have plenty of household names here in the U.S. that turned out to be frauds, not to mention the hundreds of ".com" companies that seemed to have it all..enticing young programmers with fat contracts and leased BMW's, Pinball machines in the office, Skateboarding around town, and spending thousands of invested money in Vegas because they were going public, but still had not turned one dollar in profits ...they are now defunct, leaving investors flat...they all started like this.....lots of buzz, but nothing actually working yet. They all spent more time promoting the "idea' than they did actually putting together something that was going to be profitable. If the registration expiration is correct, this is a bad thing, I don't care how you justify it. It goes to the state of mind of the registrant when they got the domain. It wasn't even a though to go past one year. I get domains for 1 year, when I am testing them out. Online 6 months is nothing, and with all the online scams that have come and gone in the last 8 years, not to mention people and companies who were though to be reputable with millions in assets, going belly up, or turning out to be scams...6 months is not a credibility factor. In other words, it's all talk right now. They are looking into some things, but nothing is written in stone. For me to invest money, I want more than that. When I ask the question : "How do you generate revenue and profits?", I want to hear, "Like this...", not "We are looking into some things". No, the ridiculous assumption is that it will be renewed just because it has some buzz. Why not do it from the beginning if you have a 3 year plan ? Right now I get 100% commission on my stores and affiliate links. As far as "how many sites offer that ?" Offer what, another affiliate program? 1000's ! Free online store ? Try Ebay and Kaboodle, or if you got $80- $300 to invest in a pixel, why not take that money buy a store script for Ebay or Amazon, register a domain for 3 years, buy a custom design, and outsource 10 articles to get your marketing started.....You can do all that for under $300 and open your own and get all of the commissions. I have never met one person that makes money form revenue sharing. This forum is rev share..have you ever gotten a check from them? As far as I have seen, rev share is a big farce. I'm not saying this can't be the greatest thing to hit India since My Space hit high schools, but what is being said, compared to what I actually see with my own eyes, says to me that there is a lot of fluff, but no actual substance. I don't see anything so different here, except a combination of old ideas, and promises of riches without an actual revenue stream in place. That is very short sighted..promising a share of profits without even having the method to create those profits in the first place...that looks like the other 1000's of ".com" start ups over the last few years. How can you promise a percentage of something that you don't even have yet, nor even know what it will bring in? What's 80% of nothing? This site looks exactly like what it is. A promise of security, and parental guidance for bloggers who don't have the skills or the dedication to do these things for themselves. It's a "Mother Hen" site. "Send me money, and I'll make money for you". The only thing that I see that they have done successfully is create a buzz around a new start up, which in itself is a skill. It's hard to look at a region that is just going through it's ".com" boom, and not remember the boom that we had when this whole thing started, and when I see the same things repeating themselves and business models that have already failed here, It's hard for me to think that maybe this time it will work. By the way, I did look at the press, and it seemed to be more about romanticizing the new start up and quitting his job in finances and the whole "cowboy" on the internet thing, than how good the actual idea is. I remember those type of articles and stories, we had 100's of them every week here in America on T.V. and in magazines like Fast Company, Business 2.0, and a whole lot of others that were as big a phone books every month with stories of "The New Great Thing". Every time you turned around, somebody had just gotten $100 million to sell online "widgets" All I'm saying is, there are millions of webmasters that don't make a dime like rats on a sinking ship, and every time someone yells: "I got a new idea and I'm going to make us all a lot of money", all the rats run to that side of the boat saturating it, hoping for a miracle cure to "No Money-itis". After a few months or a year, when they figure out that it's not the "make money without working" invention they thought it would be, they move on to the next thing. leaving the owner of the "new Thing" flush with a little cash. People are desperate...selling them promise is big business. Of course it's a household name in India, you are still in your "Romantic " period of the internet. It's new to you and anyone with some promise is going to get some attention, but once all the glitz settles and you get past all the giddiness of possible online riches, you will to start to respect this as a difficult business just like all others and ideas don't mean squat. Online you are only as good as what you have accomplished, not what you plan to accomplish. Just thought I would add, "Do you know the amount of "Blogger " startups there has been on the web in the last 5 years ? The number is staggering, and the business model has already proven to be dead. Bloggers don't buy from other bloggers.
Quite an informative thread. I heard a lot about this startup in Feb but never took it seriously primarily because of the lack of transparency in the business model. They've launched the new BETA version only in March so really didn't know much about their future pans in Feb. But one thing is for sure. The website has been able to hype itself really very well. Marketing seems to be really very good. I went thru each and every post in this thread and with every post - I got to know something new. I agree with both bloggermania and hmansfield - It does have pros and cons. These guys have used pixel advertising but with a twist - and that too a very innovative twist. This site looks more like a mutual fund where a pool of investors invest to minimize their cost and at the same time expect returns. This seems to be the case over here. As hmansfield mentioned earlier - there are chances that they may not be able to deliver what they've promised. My take: I'm gonna invest $15 in this startup just for the sake of it. If it doesn't work I lose my money. But if it works and if they're able to get me traffic as well as share profits, recoveing $15 in 3 years shouldn't be a problem. Infact the returns could as well be in a 4 digit figure if it works. So I think I'm gonna give it a try.
Hmm.. I started this thread some 3 days ago coz a friend of mine recommended this site to me. Never did I thought that this thread would have some interesting discussion goin on. Good to see ppl participating and trying to get to the roots of this sitartup As far I'm concerned, i do agree with hmansfield - there are some flaws in here but at the same time I think its genuine. You all remember MDHP. There was no such thing called business model in that site. Still it worked - why coz it got BBC coverage followed by other news channel coverage. It was hyped and ppl followed it. I see that the samething is happening again. Media has hyped it and it seems to be catching up. Just like pixel advertising was new at that time, pixel advertising with an innovative business model is a new thing today. There are so many bloggers who want to monetize their blog and this seems to be one of a kind website with such a business model for bloggers. On an average a blogger spends 2-3 hrs a day or even more to promote his/her blog but still can't make enough via adsense. This website eradicates the hardwork as in.. a blogger investing in this site will not to promote his/her blog on www.blogertizeworld.com. The site itself will do the job and will reward the bloggers if they make money So if a person wants to try his luck - I think its fair enough. There's nothing illegal in this startup but certainly a risk is involved. I agree with fashionlife here. It could help make a lot of bucks if it works. If it doesn't u lose $15 at the most. So its worth a try. Infact even $40 seems to be reasonable given the fact the share of profit (if any) for $40 would be higher than the $15 adspace button. Again, its the blogger's decision, if one thinks it won't work - stay away from it
Well, here's a suggestion - why don't u guys follow him on twitter. Keep urself updated about the venture and take an informed decision. I think enough has been discussed about this startup. I joined yesterday itself. The link is there on the homepage - www.twitter.com/blogertize
That is a very good observation, especially given the background of the owner. This pitch is put together exactly like a mutual fund manager...layered, and promises of future earnings based on speculation, however in this instance there is no history of performance to go on, and similar funds have gone belly up with in a year. For me, this is definitely not something that I am interested in...something about the pitch makes me feel uneasy...Like I said, I have seen it before, he just threw a new coat of paint on it to get everyone talking. Interesting how plain his Twiter page is, No custom background, no link to his homepage, or that all of the bloggers that have supposedly signed up with their money are not following. Strange that he is not taking Twitter seriously, or that he would put a profile up on the largest growing social networking site in the world with millions of users and growing...that was not 100% , to use as a marketing tool. I know the Twitter profile is new (strange that he just got around to it if he is some kind of traffic and marketing guru) , but it's not hard to get followers, especially if you supposedly have the "next big thing", and they are not registered in the forums, yet somehow this site is going to sustain enough traffic to make it beneficial to buy a pixel ? It's the little things that speak volumes. I'm still not buying it, sorry. ..and you know what else ? The domain sucks. It is only for bloggers.
That says it all. The major flaw with this is that I don't see a single regular user caring. Those regular users are the ones who click on ads, buy stuff, and generate our commissions. Explain that and then I'll be willing to listen some more.