I found a blog today, written by a money making blogger after my own heart. The $10,000 Blog Experiment site was launched by Brian Longest in September of this year, with a goal of making $10,000 a month by September of 2008, AND letting others know how to do it. Brian is not only looking into every aspect of blog monetization out there, but he’s letting readers know what works, and what doesn’t via his blog. Everything is completely transparent - from the income he’s made each month ($2.36 in September, $6.60 in October, and $48.71 in November) to his rankings and the marketing tests he’s run on various affiliate programs and advertising networks.

First of all, two big thumbs up for Brian’s blog design. All of the pertinent information is displayed right at the top - mission statement, how his blog started, and most importantly - his income so far. Below that, you’ll find posts Brian has done on various money making opportunities and affiliate programs. The site is organized and laid out well, and although the theme is quite different from what most of us are used to seeing in a blog, I like it.

I mentioned that Brian’s money making progress is completely transparent, and his November marketing analysis illustrates that. At a glance you can view Brian’s blog stats, his income, and expenses. Brian’s goal isn’t just to make money for himself - he’s also trying to educate bloggers on what works and what doesn’t work. His reviews of affiliate programs and other methods of blog monetization are unbiased and clear. He’s saving people a lot of time and headache by sharing his success and failures so openly. Given that his income has started to increase exponentially (it’s doubled each month since his blog launched), I don’t think Brian will have any problem meeting his goal by next September.

Ever tried to mail a huge file to a friend, only to find out they didn’t get it, because YOUR email server (or theirs!) didn’t like your file size? It’s a pain in the ass to figure out how that file will get there. Will zipping it compress it enough? Can you send it to them via a ICQ file transfer? The easy solution is found at Mail Big File. You can send a file (512MB maximum file size) to anyone you choose, without choking your email server up. For free. Need to send more than 512MB? Check out their business account - they’ll even give you a free trial.

A few months ago, my friend Techie left a comment for me on my other blog. I noticed that the email address he filled in contained MY name, but at his domain. Thinking I had caught Techie in a mistake, I ribbed him about it, and he clued me in. Turns out that when he leaves comments at sites, he’ll use the blog owner, or the blog name instead of HIS. So instead of techie@whateverblog.com, he’ll switch to colleen@whateverblog.com. By doing this, he can see if anyone spams him, and it’s not coming to his mail email. It’s something simple that anyone with access to the mail for their domain can do. (Correct me if I have the story wrong John - I know you will!)

I learned today that Gmail users can do something similar, and it’s called plus addressing. By combining this little trick with filters, you can send email to certain folders and find out who is spamming you. Neat!

Technorati Tags: Gmail, spam, Techie, Gmail tricks, email, spammer, stop spam, fight spam