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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Be careful of Alvin Phang’s course on making money through blogs!

Recently I was asked if I would pay for an iPhone. Well to start with I’ve not even gotten up close and personal with an iPhone before so I don’t know if I would pay a lot of money for one. In any case, where I come from, the iPhone is exclusively tied to the use of one particular mobile phone service provider. That’s as far as I know for now.

But I’ve heard great and raving reviews of these iPhones from fellow fans of Apple products. So much so that they’ve gotten their hands on these phones way before they made their way onto our shores.

On the other hand, I also have friends who are fans but not willing to pay so much for an iPhone. So what they do is to get their hands on products that are similar in appearance and functionality as the iPhone. Apparently there are lots of these products in the market and they cost a fraction of the cost of an iPhone.

Having heard from both sides, I do hear some differences between the iPhone and the iPhone-wanna-be products. So at the end of the day, I do ask both sets of friends whether they would trade the price for the actual quality and I get quite a mix view from the two groups. I guess it is as expected.

The iPhone fans, on top of simply loving the iPhone itself, are also very happy with the range of iPhone accessories that come with it. Apple fans being Apple fans, they also always up-play the aesthetic value of the Apple products too, from the phone itself down to the smallest of things like the iPhone car charger and even iPhone case look perfectly beautiful. Actually, I can’t agree more. You have to give it up to Apple when it comes to presentation.

But still, when you ask me if I would pay the price for one of these beautiful gadgets, I can’t say for sure. Perhaps it will depend on my impulse when being approached to buy one of these.

Which side of the fence are you on, an Apple-die-hard fan or the one who could do with an Apple alternative? Any tips to share if there’s someone who wants all the benefits of an iPhone but cannot afford the price?

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To pay for an iPhone or a product that looks like an iPhone?

This isn’t exactly a tip of any kind, just some information to share. I read recently that Google searches are costly to the environment. Here’s a paragraph taken from the above titled news article:

While millions of people tap into Google without a thought for the environment, a typical search generates about 7g of CO2. Boiling a kettle generates about 15g.

This stems from the belief that Google uses very high energy consumption to keep its servers in a state of high performance at all times. The more we use Google’s search engine, the more Google needs to upkeep its performance to meet our demands.

But then again I believe it’s not just Google that needs high power consumption to run its business effectively. Many other companies do, it’s just that they are probably not as high key and talked about as Google.

So whatever it is, I do think that we should give Google a break.

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Did you know that an online search can affect the environment?

Earlier I wrote about how smartphone users can use a software called Phone Guardian to protect their phones from unauthorised use should the phone get stolen (read it here). There hasn’t been such a great feature for normal mobile phones, but thankfully there is still something you can do to protect your phone from being used if it gets stolen.

You can disable your phone from being used simply by calling your mobile service operator or service provider. What you need to do beforehand is to jot down your phone’s unique serial number. When you call your service provider to report phone loss, give them your mobile phone’s serial number and they will be able to lock your phone immediately and prevent it from being used. A change of SIM card will not unlock the phone either, thus the phone will be totally useless to whoever who stole it.

To obtain your phone’s serial number, key in the following digits on your phone:

* # 0 6 #

 

 

Make sure you keep this serial number safe!

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How to disable your mobile phone if it gets stolen

If you are using a smartphone, chances are you will want the highest security to protect it since smartphones don’t come cheap. Fortunately, there is a way to protect your device and your SIM card from being potentially misused if it gets stolen. Smartphones can use a software called Phone Guardian to remotely lock and unlock the phone just by sending an SMS. Sounds simple and easy, isn’t it? Read more about this software and how it works in many ways to help protect your phone against unauthorised use.

Phone Guardian helps to secure your mobile against theft in the following ways:

Send an SMS with a specific code and your chosen password (preset beforehand when you install the software) to fully lock or unlock your phone. This will definitely frustrate the culprits as there is no way they are able to make use of your device once it is locked. They can’t even attempt to sell it off to make a profit as no one will be a willing buyer of a non-functioning phone!

Send an SMS with a code and password to turn on or off a siren or alarm. This will probably be a good shock to the culprits when the siren is unexpectedly turned on! It may even alert people around the culprits that they have stolen a phone.

You can also set an auto lock function without sending an SMS. This auto lock will work upon an insertion of a different SIM card into the phone.

You can also set the siren or alarm to go off automatically when the phone is being locked. Setting this function to auto mode seems useful and saves you some work in the event that your phone does get stolen.

There are more functions on how to lock your phone in different ways. You can read more about the Phone Guardian software at this site for more information. On this site, you can also check the compatibility of this software for many smartphone models.

Using this software may not prevent the theft of your phone, but at least it will render your device useless to those who stole it and you will have peace of mind that you are not going to be charged a huge phone bill for calls you did not make.

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Lock your mobile phone remotely by sending an SMS