AGloCo Shot

Want to make money? Why not make money from your hobbies and interests?

2009-01-18T19:01:00.007+08:00

Information, information, information!

For those who haven't realized it yet, the reason why the internet is so popular is because people need a reference to whatever their interest is at the moment, and they need it quick! What does that mean for those who are looking for extra income? Well, if there's a need/problem and you have a solution to that need then what you have is an opportunity-an opportunity to make money! Take for example a local butcher. We all need to eat, and sometimes we want meat. In those times the butcher is in luck because he have a solution for your need! It's that simple!

Through the internet, you too can earn from the need of others by supplying the information that surfers are looking for! What information should you write about? Why not write about your interests and/or hobbies?? Are you great at sewing patterns? According to Google, on average, there are 246,000 searches about "sewing patterns" in a month! How about welding? Welding garners 2 million searches in a month on average while welding tutorial garners 760 searches in a month. Surely, there's opportunity there somewhere with those numbers!

THINK ABOUT IT! What if you can provide sewing patterns to those 246,000 people who searches for patterns on the internet every month! How about providing tutorials to those 760 people! Create good content and people will flock your site! Take my
me trippin are great trippin site, it's a traveling and living guide to Singapore, with a couple of articles on how you can go to other Southeast Asia destination from Singapore. I've just started it last December and yet I've been getting 1 organic internet traffic a day on average. That may not seem much compared to the other sites that receive 2,000 (and more!) traffic a day, but it does mean that there are people who are interested on the topics that I write. And I know that the more content I write, the more people will go flocking to my site! And the more money I'll be earning!

Now let me be clear that although you can earn money in the internet, like all other things worthwhile, it takes time and hard work. It is one thing to write about something, it is another to make sure that what people do find that things that you write. To promote your website you not only need to work on your SEO (search engine optimization) but also, just like in an offline business, you have to create a network of contacts, and be relevant to these contacts.

But before we go through the nitty-gritty of promoting your site, first think about the theme of your site, what topic will it focus on? Travel? Sewing? Skating? You don't have anything that you're good at? Sure you do! That's what I thought also. I thought that although I'm interested in a lot of things I'm not really that passionate about anything, which would mean a lot of research have to be done on my subject of interest to be able to write about them. I even started and dropped a lot of topic. First I thought about writing about the Philippines, but soon realized that although I'm Filipino I have not really travelled the island that much, and although I'm interested in traveling it, it will take a lot, money-wise, for me to do my research well. I thought of narrowing my topic to Manila, but I still have the same problem. Manila is a huge city and I've been away for so long, the information that I'll offer will not be up-to-date. Then I settled to writing about folklores. I was interested in folklores when I was a kid. And when I did my research, there were a lot of people who want information about it, and not so many websites writing about this topic (at least not about Philippine folklore). But then after setting up my site and writing 3-5 articles, I realized that I'm not that interested in the topic and I didn't have the motivation to write, not like the motivation I have now writing for me trippin are great trippin or for AGloCoShot. Only in late November (of 2008), when I was not really thinking about earning from the internet, did the idea of writing about Singapore hit me! Lest you think that everything has been smooth sailing ever since, let me tell you now that the concept of what and how I'm going to write about Singapore have evolved and is constantly evolving. So what am I trying to say? I'm trying to say that for some, it will take time to know what your topic will be. And you may have to stop scrap an idea even if you have already started or invested (time- and money-wise) in it.

So if you're interested to make money from your interest and hobbies, here's your assignment: list 10 topics that you either have passion for and great knowledge of, or at least be motivated enough to know more of. Will talk to you again next week!

A new phase for AGLOCO Shot

2008-12-31T11:46:00.003+08:00

It seems that my AGLOCO Shot blog ranks 1st in Google searches for aglocomail. Without doing anything I have had 179 unique visitors in 2008 and 183 in 2007. Most of these visitors where from searches for aglocomail, which I did an article on back in late 2007. There were some who tried to join AGLOCO through my site but by then the management team has pulled the plug and the AGLOCO site was no more. I wanted to preserve the look of my site but the number of failed hits to the AGLOCO site made me realize that it's not doing my AGLOCO Shot blog no good.

In case you miss the old one, here it is:

End of the road (for now??)

2008-02-20T23:22:00.012+08:00

A year after its inception, the AGLOCO management team throws in the towel. Here is the official email sent on December 13, 2008:

Dear Ms. Coco,

We would like to update you on the status of AGLOCO's operations. We continue to believe in the AGLOCO concept, but our revenue is currently not sufficient to give Members a meaningful distribution. And though there are increases in membership, the resulting revenue is not enough to support operating costs. As a development team we are unable to continue to use our savings to fund the operations. If any Member would like to pursue continuing the operations of AGLOCO, you may contact us at agloco1@live.com .

We would like to thank every Member for supporting our effort to bring a piece of the Internet directly to the user. We hope that we can find a way to keep the operations going.

AGLOCO Development Team

HOT OFF THE PRESS!! - AGLOCO released official payment announcement!

2007-09-29T16:33:00.001+08:00

Earlier today, AGLOCO released their first announcement on member distribution. They have set the following rates which will be paid out in 10 years:

• June $0.48 per hour - ($0.0040 per month for 120 months)
• July $0.42 per hour - ($0.0035 per month for 120 months)
• August $0.54 per hour - ($0.0045 per month for 120 months)

The rate is actually not at all bad. But there's a lot of argument over the value of the payment scheme because, well, if you haven't accumulated a substantial number of hours yet, then the payout is almost insignificant. If, for example, you hit the minimum payout amount of $100 in June (which is equivalent to around 208 AGLOCO hours), you'd get $0.83 per month for 10 years!

(Okay, I had to pause there for a while and remind myself that this is actually better than nothing since I've been surfing the web for years and I don't get a single cent. But this would work only if I don't have to pay for bank transfer charges, etc..)

Those who have accumulated significant number of hours are worried about inflation. There's talk of being able to sell AGLOCO hours and even the AGLOCO management team is pursuing this idea. If it ever takes place, I don't think it will be put up in the near future seeing that they are already swamped with backlog work.

Still, we have to understand that the AGLOCO viewbar only launched last June and that besides Ask.Com there's AGLOCO doesn't have significant advertisers yet. This scenario will definitely change in the next 1-3 months, and quite rapidly after that so I still think AGLOCO is going to be one of the bigger and more consistent player in the Get-Paid-To arena and it is worth everyone's time to join and stay on the program.

My advise then is, if you're not yet an ASK.com user then try it and see what it is good for. Use it regularly if you like the search engine. And (this is important!) remember to use your Viewbar's Ask.Com search box!

Continue spreading the word! If you haven't joined yet, then Join Now!

Click here for details on the payment announcement.

aglocoshot temporarily put down

2007-09-29T06:22:00.000+08:00

The reason for this was that aglocoshot was tagged as a potential spam blog by Blogger automated classifier. According to Blogger Help, spam blogs "can be recognized by their irrelevant, repetitive, or nonsensical text, along with a large number of links, usually all pointing to a single site."

I attribute the erroneous classification to the numerous links to the AGLOCO referral page that this blog has. Fortunately, everything was cleared when a "human" (that's what the Blogger Team call themselves!) visited and reviewed the site..

Well, all's well that ends well; plus, now I know what to avoid in my future websites.

Apologies to those who were inconvenienced!
Continue surfing and spreading the AGLOCO mission!

Official announcement on AGLOCOMail

2007-09-28T06:47:00.000+08:00

In one of the forums I was surfing earlier, I chanced upon a link to AGLOCOMail which has set up a Get-Paid-To .. mail, click, and surf program. Their website looked very similar to the AGLOCO website, but the payments were not realistic (they were giving US$100 for an email, and US$10 for a click) that you smell SCAM right away.

Did a little research and found out this official announcement from AGLOCO Officials released on September 24:

On aglocomails.com – this is not connected with AGLOCO. Our counsel sent a cease and desist notice last week. We do not know if we will have to pursue further legal matters with them or the ISP providing services to them. If they are just a scam group there is unfortunately little to gain for the AGLOCO Members other than shutting them down. We will try to do this while spending as little of Member money on this kind of effort as possible.

Tweaks & tools used in this blog

2007-09-25T14:13:00.001+08:00

Finally, I've done enough tinkering and written enough content that I can start showing this blog to friends. I couldn't have done it without the help of fellow bloggers who continue to work on hacks and provide tools to newbies like me. If you're wondering what these sites are, then read on!

Tweaks
1. Beta Blogger for Dummies - good source of tweaks possible in blogspot. I haven't gotten around to implementing these tweaks but still a very informative website.
2. Tips for new Bloggers - my source for the three-column scribe template used in AGloCo Shot.
3. Blogger Hacks - this is the site that provided the expandable-summaries-with-peekaboo-view hack.

Tools
1. If you need AGLOCO banners for your blog or website then check www.aglocobanners.com. They've created banners in different sizes, and they're free!
2. Of course, the official AGLOCO websiteis a valued resource too.

Hope you found this useful!

UPDATES:
31 Dec 2008: Removed the link to aglocobanners and AGLOCO website as the links are no longer valid.

AGLOCO to announce first payments!

2007-09-25T03:19:00.000+08:00

Heard from the grapevine that AGLOCO is going to announce its first payment within the week! This is really good news especially to those who have started building their networks. Most are not expecting big payout since AGLOCO has just launched its viewbar and internet businesses have just started advertising. What everyone is expecting though is for this company to grow from strength to strength (ie, for it to give bigger and bigger payouts), and for it to be one of those online companies you can build a long-term relationship with.

Will keep you guys posted!

To those who haven't signed-up yet, there's no time to lose!
Join now and spread the word!

Get Paid To Surf!

Robert Scoble interviews AGLOCO founders

2007-09-25T00:12:00.000+08:00

Robert Scoble, Vice-President for Media Development in podtech.net and co-author of Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers interviews two of the AGLOCO founders, Ray Everett-Church and Akshay Mavani, for the Scoble Show. This is a video that anyone who is looking at the AGLOCO opportunity should watch.

Watch Chris Pirillo explain AGLOCO

2007-09-19T00:25:00.000+08:00

I came across a video on YouTube which I think is a really good marketing resource for those who want to know more about AGLOCO or those who are looking for something to show their friends. This video gives a good overview AGLOCO and touches a bit on its AllAdvantage history.

I also did a little research on Chris Pirillo, the guy in the video, and turns out that this geek (I use this term with utmost respect) is a well-known figure in the tech / internet world.

Have fun watching the video, but remember, if you want to sign up for AGLOCO and you want to use a referral, my referral number is BBHG9392. That's two B's, B as in Boy, H G 9 3 9 2 ;-)

To know more about Chris, visit his website and blog.

Why did I join AGLOCO?

2007-09-18T03:13:00.000+08:00

Simple. I asked myself two questions:
1. If the AGLOCO vision somehow doesn't pan out, or if the team that brought AllAdvantage doesn't keep their word this time, or if all I get is a few measly dollars.. what will I lose?
2. And what if it is a success, what will I gain?

And decided that the upside is greater than the risk.

It seems that other tech notables think the same way. See my Chris Pirillo video entry.

How do WE earn?

2007-09-17T20:00:00.000+08:00

The founding principles of AGLOCO is that internet users like you and me who help build communities like MySpace, YouTube, Friendster, or LinkedIn should have a share in the profit that these companies make through advertising. And why not? It's the members who created the community and made the business profitable.

From the AGLOCO earnings, 90% goes to members while the remaining 10% goes to the management team. Individually, we earn a share of this 90% and a part of the company based on our use of the AGLOCO Viewbar on a given month. Currently this is capped at a maximum of 5 hours per month. You might be wondering why it is capped at 5 hours per month. You can read the AGLOCO history to get an idea.

Aside from surfing the web, anoher way to earn is through the AGLOCO referral system. Those who help build the AGLOCO community also gets paid based on the hours spent online by their referrals. Remember, AGLOCO only has significant value as a large network and people who help build it are rewarded. The more internet users use the AGLOCO Viewbar, the more advertisers invests in AGLOCO, and the more members earn from AGLOCO.

There is no limit to the direct or indirect referrals that you can have and you get rewarded from the surfing time of up to 5 generations of the community you built.your referral.

Now that it's clear how we can earn, let's make it clearer by listing here activities that Do Not Earn Hours / Shares / Cash:
Signing up as a new member.
Referring new members who do not become active members.
Clicking on ads. There is no incentive or requirement to click on ads.
Changing your online behavior in any way. Just download the Viewbar software and use the Internet how you always have.

How does AGLOCO earn money?

2007-09-16T23:47:00.000+08:00

AGLOCO has multiple sources of income, albeit, all internet based. Here is the information the management team has provided in the AGLOCO website:

1. Search: Every time you use the Viewbar™ to do an Internet search, AGLOCO earns money from the search engine providers. (For example, Google pays as much as $0.10 on average for each search that is directed to its search engine.)

2. Advertising: The Viewbar™ itself displays ads that are targeted based upon the websites you’re visiting. When you click on an ad and make a purchase, AGLOCO receives a referral fee, which we pass on to our Members. (Please note: Individual members do not receive any compensation for clicking on ads in the Viewbar™, and the Viewbar™ can detect if someone is clicking ads in a fraudulent manner.)

3. Transaction commissions: Many major retailers pay commissions when you refer customers who make a purchase. AGLOCO collects that commission and passes it on to our members. (For example, Amazon pays an 8.5% commission to most websites who refer customers, and has cut deals for even larger percentages. The bigger the AGLOCO community, the better commission we can negotiate for our Members.)

4. Software distribution: Numerous software companies pay websites to encourage the download of new software releases (for example, Adobe’s Flash and Acrobat Reader software), and trial versions of new programs. AGLOCO members not only get access to the latest and coolest software, they get paid for it.

5. Service distribution: Many online service providers will look to the AGLOCO community as a source of new and active users for their services. (For example, eBay, Skype, and PayPal, among others, all pay fees to people who help them recruit new active users to their services)

6. Product distribution: When Members agree to use a product, such as cell phones, high-tech gadgets, office supplies, new credit cards or financial services, AGLOCO can collect referral fees. Some companies even offer special rebate and cash-back programs.

Who are the people behind AGLOCO?

2007-09-16T22:11:00.000+08:00

The guys behind AGLOCO include some of the individuals who started AllAdvantage in 1998 and their friends from the Stanford MBA program. AGLOCO can be called a spin-off of AllAdvantage, which became one of the most popular website of its time but suffered from the internet bubble and a couple of policies disadvantageous to the company. Despite going under, AllAdvantage and its founders were able to keep the members' goodwill by keeping its words and paying the members their due.

These are the members of the AGLOCO team as posted on the AGLOCO website:

Akshay Mavani A.K. coordinates strategy and represents our Indian Members. He brings experience as an electronic engineer, and worked in sales and strategy in China and Hong Kong before attending Stanford's Graduate School of Business.

Allison Cui Allison is AGLOCO's China specialist and represents our Chinese Members. She worked as a software engineer in Shanghai, China before attending the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Anne Sophie Mayos Anne-Sophie handles AGLOCO's website and her sense of style makes sure it is always up to date. Originally from Paris, she designed media information sites for millions of online users at France's leading television channel.

Brian Greenwald Brian works in business development at AGLOCO. A scientist by education, he worked in marketing and development for several biotech companies before attending Stanford's Graduate School of Business.

Cannon Bonar Cannon is AGLOCO's ambassador within the teenage community. Currently a student at Central Middle School, he will represent our teen Members (and he tried hard to think of a cool-looking name for our company).

Dan Jorgensen Dan is AGLOCO's Member recruiting coordinator. He worked in sports marketing and online advertising before helping AGLOCO create its network.

Javier Alvira Javier is our in-house blogger expert. A native of Spain, he worked as an engineer in telecommunications around Europe before joining Stanford's Graduate School of Business.

Jim Jorgensen Founder of AllAdvantage and Discovery Zone. Jim's experience of paying $100 million to members in 1999 and pioneering the “returning value to Internet users” idea, is an invaluable source in guiding AGLOCO's new Development Team members.

Moshe Pinto Moshe is AGLOCO's resident lawyer, he negotiates and executes contracts. Prior to joining Stanford's Graduate School of Business, Moshe worked as a corporate lawyer and political strategist in Israel and the US.

Nick Punt Nick advises AGLOCO's technological and community development. He worked as a video game designer and online communities' product manager prior to attending Stanford's Graduate School of Business.

Ray Everett-Church Ray was the world's first corporate Chief Privacy Officer, pioneering the field of corporate privacy professionals. An attorney and technology expert, he is responsible for ensuring the privacy and security of AGLOCO's Member information and providing guidance on privacy and anti-spam issues.

Sam Flax Sam is AGLOCO's Chief Architect for the design of our economic network. Sam's 30 years in Russia and then 20 years in the US give to AGLOCO a unique perspective on managing and implementing our database.

Steve de Bonvoisin Steve coordinates AGLOCO's communication and strategy implementation. Originally from Belgium, he has lived and worked on four continents and brings experience in economic consulting and as a reporter for a leading economic newspaper. He is attending Stanford's Graduate School of Business.

Trey Reasonover Trey is our in-house community dynamics specialist. He became a Web 2.0 addict after working as a strategy consultant, and attends Stanford's Graduate School of Business.

AGLOCO History

2007-09-16T04:39:00.001+08:00

Here is the company's history as published on the AGLOCO website.

The Infomediary. In February 1999, four of us sat around in the backyard of a house on the Stanford campus (we were either current or former Stanford students) and created a new concept – the online infomediary. We realized that individual users of the Internet, by their actions and the information they were providing (both willingly and not), were creating tremendous value. Yet none of this value was accruing back to the individual users.

We also realized that individuals held much more information about themselves which they might be willing to share if they would share in the profits from this information, and if other conditions - such as privacy and security - were satisfied. We knew that companies were willing to "pay" for increased information about users. But no system existed to bridge the gap between these two parties.

AllAdvantage.com. So, we launched AllAdvantage.com in the spring of 1999 in an attempt to bridge this gap. By downloading and using the AllAdvantage.com Viewbar, members were effectively "renting" some of their computer screen and their clickstream data for hourly cash payments.

This "get paid to the surf the web" concept proved wildly successful with consumers. Tens of millions of people are happy to share some non-personal information and share in the profits that are being made on the Web, even though this was being questioned in the business press. The concept also proved to be highly successful in generating revenues, as most people agree that AllAdvantage.com generated more revenue in its first 12 months of operations than any online consumer/advertising company in history.

Ultimately – and unfortunately rather quickly – AllAdvantage.com failed as a company because we relied too heavily on venture capital financing and our growth in members far outstripped our growth in revenues early on. Put simply, we signed up members in Internet time and sold ads (our primary form of revenue) in old-fashioned media time. The AllAdvantage.com model started paying members as soon as they downloaded and started using the Viewbar, but it took time to monetize these incremental hours.

As the online ad market and the Internet financing markets crashed in 2000-01, the revenues from the business could not keep up with the rapid growth in members (and their associated fixed hourly costs). We unfortunately had to close the business, even though new members were continuing to join the network.

While we had no choice but to shut down the business, AllAdvantage.com did deliver everything it promised to members: We mailed out over $100 million in checks to members, and advertisers delivered the most targeted, information-rich advertising opportunity on the Web.

The company maybe failed, but the ideas behind it never did…

Where are we today? Online advertising, after stalling in 2001-02, is bigger than ever (Google, of course, has changed everything). Targeted search and contextual text ads – almost non-existent in 1999 – are now everywhere. Companies – Google and Yahoo, for example – are trying to convince users to download "toolbars" (sound familiar?) to gather more information from their members. All this information – and the companies that gather it – is worth more than ever. Yet the individual users still do not have an effective way to get their share back.

YouTube was acquired for $1.65 billion by Google in October 2006. The story of how three guys made hundreds of millions of dollars in one year is a great tale of entrepreneurial success. But what happened to the first users who posted their videos on the site and told their friends to do the same? We don't hear about them, because they did not get anything (other than free video hosting). Wasn't it really these users that helped turn YouTube into a multi-billion dollar company? Sure the site is great and the founders deserve all the credit they get, but it is the users who ultimately made it valuable. There are plenty of video sites, and if it wasn't YouTube, another site could have filled the space, become a household name and been acquired for an amazing price.

We are not trying to pick on YouTube (which we happen to love using). How about the early users of Skype? What about those who first downloaded the software, made calls to their friends in different countries and told their parents to use it as well? They did not see a penny of the $2.6 billion that eBay paid for the company in September 2005. And MySpace? How about the millions of members there? How did they do when News Corp. bought the company for almost $600 million? After all, it was the members that Rupert Murdoch was after when he purchased the site.

The point we are trying to make here is that there are plenty of social networking sites out there, but it is the members that make these sites and services valuable. Yet, they get no monetary value from it.

We could go on. But the story is always the same: users (and the information they bring with them) are valuable. Creating a system that enables users to share in all these profits is the next big thing. We call it an economic network. Others call it a global online community co-op. Or "Linux for consumers." It's a big idea. And it's happening now.

AGLOCO We started AGLOCO at a coffee shop near the Stanford campus. We sat down with a group of Stanford graduate students to design the next generation of the Internet enterprise using the infomediary as one of the foundation blocks.

We decided we wanted to build the economic network that enables individuals on the Web to share in the profits that their data and their actions help create. AGLOCO is more than a Web site and it is more than a Viewbar company. It is a network that links people, their information and their friends together to form something bigger.

Like all networks that have come before (from the Internet itself to MySpace), this one gets stronger as it gets bigger. AGLOCO with 1,000 or 10,000 members is not much more than the sum of its parts. But AGLOCO with 1 million or 10 million members starts to become important. It's important because it changes the consumer-company relationship online and changes the way everyone thinks about their online experience.

What is AGLOCO?

2007-09-15T02:09:00.000+08:00

AGLOCO, which stands for A Global Community, is an economic network on the internet built on the same principles behind groups like trade associations, cooperatives and chambers of commerce. AGLOCO believes that individually, internet users and consumers are creating a lot of value over the internet. Proof of this is the billions internet companies, service providers and advertisers spend a year to reach us, internet users. And when we group together, as in the AGLOCO community, this value is heightened and we come to represent an economic power that internet companies couldn't and shouldn't ignore.

As members of AGLOCO, we benefit by getting back some of the value that we generate over the internet. AGLOCO earns from advertisers who reach AGLOCO members through AGLOCO's Viewbar™. A part of this earnings go back to AGLOCO members in the form of cash or shares.

What do do we have to do to benefit? Nothing really special - just register with AGLOCO, download the AGLOCO Viewbar™ and surf the net as usual! (Remember, we are already creating value simply by doing what we are doing.) For my part, since AGLOCO rewards members for their referrals' surfing time, I decided to put on extra effort to spread the AGLOCO vision!

Ciao for now. Check my next post for details on how AGLOCO rewards you.