Wednesday Whoh!

Each Wednesday, I will be posting a "Wednesday whoh!" This may be a "whoh!" like "hold the show, this is awesome!" or it could be a "whoh!" as in: "Whoh, don't do that!"

Wednesday's whoh! : Follow the rules; spoken and unspoken

When working online, there are spoken and unspoken rules. Some rules, if broken, will get you a swift ban  not only from a site you may be making money at, but also from Google; yes, you can actually be ban from Google...well, from making money from Google.

Once you are "blacklisted" or banned, it is forever and there is no pleading your case, it's just done. So, before you venture into making money, know the rules, read the fine print, talk to other people who are making money from the same place, it is important.

Now, don't be scared. As long as you follow a few really easy rules, you will be fine. Let me highlight a couple big ones:

 No-no #1: Do not copy and paste content. Never, ever is that ok. Plagiarism is a huge problem on the Internet. Don't be part of that problem.  Posting a link to someone else's work is ok (and usually appreciated) but do not copy other people's material. One exception to that rule is recipes. Recipes are not subject to copyright. Personally, I would still check with the author before copying an entire recipe verbatim; that would fall in the "unspoken rule " category.  This goes for pictures also. You can not snag a picture off Google images and use it without permission. There are lots of free or very reasonable sites that house photos you can use (more on that later).

No-no #2: If you are writing content online, especially revenue share articles, do not click on your own ads. Also, do not mention your ads or encourage friends and family to click on the ads. Google Adsense has a very sensitive system and can easily track the ad clicks. It is not difficult for them to find those 'cheating the system' and you will be banned in a hurry. Now, if your readers are genuinely interested, they will click on the ad, that is how it is supposed to work. My best advice is to not even worry about the ads. Just write your articles and leave the ads alone completely.

P.S. Just 4 more followers to get to 25 and then...I will give away a secret to making money online! (don't worry, none of my secrets cost any money).