I have to qualify first that I
personally did not attend this course held recently in Kuala Lumpur by
facilitator Alvin Phang, on the topic of how to make money online or by
blogging. The title of the workshop escaped me but it’s something to do
with teaching people how to make money on their blogs.
I believe Alvin Phang comes from
Singapore and claims to have made many thousands of dollars through his
blogging, mainly from affiliate programs. Someone I know went for the
course and after completing the 2-day course which was held at Wisma MCA
during a recent weekend, I asked how it went, what he learned and
gained. He kindly shared with me and to my horror, I found that people
should be made aware of some hidden agenda. Read below on how I think
Alvin cheats on his earnings from affiliate programs and Adsense.
Firstly, I would like to qualify also
that I believe Alvin Phang has made his course specially for people who
do not know anything about blogging and setting up blogs. He helps them
to register a domain of their choice and subsequently helps to install
Wordpress on it and proceed to set it up including installing a theme
for all participants. They all use a theme designed by him.
They are told that for the RM2,500
course held in Malaysia, it not only includes the workshop fee but they
also get the domain name and 1-year hosting of their site. I expected
the participants to then get full access to their web host and also
domain name manager so that they are fully empowered to manage their own
blogs.
As it turns out, they do not have any
control over the web host nor the domain name. I figured that Alvin
probably earned his affiliate income signing up everyone for a domain
name and a 1-year web host service. And since they do not have any
control over this and thus will not learn how to manage any of these
services going forward, they seem to be locked in for as long as they
don’t transfer out the domain and continue using the web host provider
they signed up with. Wow, that’s year after year of affiliate income for
Alvin, isn’t it?
I have to qualify first that I
personally did not attend this course held recently in Kuala Lumpur by
facilitator Alvin Phang, on the topic of how to make money online or by
blogging. The title of the workshop escaped me but it’s something to do
with teaching people how to make money on their blogs.
I believe Alvin Phang comes from
Singapore and claims to have made many thousands of dollars through his
blogging, mainly from affiliate programs. Someone I know went for the
course and after completing the 2-day course which was held at Wisma MCA
during a recent weekend, I asked how it went, what he learned and
gained. He kindly shared with me and to my horror, I found that people
should be made aware of some hidden agenda. Read below on how I think
Alvin cheats on his earnings from affiliate programs and Adsense.
Firstly, I would like to qualify also
that I believe Alvin Phang has made his course specially for people who
do not know anything about blogging and setting up blogs. He helps them
to register a domain of their choice and subsequently helps to install
Wordpress on it and proceed to set it up including installing a theme
for all participants. They all use a theme designed by him.
They are told that for the RM2,500
course held in Malaysia, it not only includes the workshop fee but they
also get the domain name and 1-year hosting of their site. I expected
the participants to then get full access to their web host and also
domain name manager so that they are fully empowered to manage their own
blogs.
As it turns out, they do not have any
control over the web host nor the domain name. I figured that Alvin
probably earned his affiliate income signing up everyone for a domain
name and a 1-year web host service. And since they do not have any
control over this and thus will not learn how to manage any of these
services going forward, they seem to be locked in for as long as they
don’t transfer out the domain and continue using the web host provider
they signed up with. Wow, that’s year after year of affiliate income for
Alvin, isn’t it?
That’s not all, Alvin also removed the
permission to edit any of the theme settings in Wordpress
administration. This means that they cannot change the template, cannot
tweak the theme in anyway. Not even to install any plugins! All they get
to do is post entries, add some widgets in the sidebar, put up some
affiliate banners and that’s about it.
Why shouldn’t the owners of the blogs be
allowed to manage all these fundamental things in their very own blogs?
I’ll tell you why. Or at least I think I figured the reason why Alvin
locked it.
Alvin made it known to the participants
that he DOES NOT believe in making money from Google Adsense. If you
visit his various sites, you will not find a single unit of Adsense
being used. Fair enough. But do you know what he has done with all the
participants’ blogs? He inserted Adsense into them and those Adsense
units are not from the participants’ Google Adsense accounts! Whose are
they? Must be Alvin’s, right?
He inserted those Adsense into the
sidebar of the blogs but he did so sneakily. He did not insert them
using the widgets because blog owners can change and even remove them.
He included the Adsense codes into the sidebar.php file which is kept
locked and inaccessible to these blog owners. So how are they going to
remove these Adsense? They simply can’t.
So if Alvin does not believe in Adsense,
why did he so sneakily incorporate them into other people’s blogs and
lock it so that it cannot be removed? Answer is simple. Alvin does
believe in Adsense. He just doesn’t put them into his own blogs but make
his Adsense income via other people’s blogs. God knows how many similar
courses he’s conducted and how many participants’ blogs he has set up
with his Adsense code incorporated.
Now if you think about it, Alvin is a
smart businessman who not only makes money from the seminar fees
collected, he is also making affiliate income from all the domain names
and web host sign ups, including any clicks of those Adsense on other
people’s blogs. No wonder he can claim to have made hundreds of
thousands through affiliate programs. So now you understand the secret
of his making so much money from affiliate programs. Clever business
idea, isn’t it?
I won’t comment on the content of his
seminar. I’m sure for beginners they would have learned a lot since they
start out with no knowledge whatsoever. I’m only warning you of what he
does behind your back, telling half-truths and lying about his
sentiments on Adsense when he’s riding on it through you!
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