Blogs For Bucks: I Got 99 Blogs But Male Enhancement Ain't One.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Blogs For Bucks: I Got 99 Blogs But Male Enhancement Ain't One.

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Kibbles n Shits: Apr 8, 2006; burgerpug.png; Fun Shoe

That's kind of what I was thinking, thanks for the reply. My goal is to provide a lot of useful information for my chosen topic but still encourage sales in a way that isn't blatant. But I wasn't sure if a storefront type of page would be an overall help or hindrance. I suppose it's all academic since this is my first blog and my goal is simply for the site to fund its own continued existence, but we'll see.

# ? Feb 10, 2015 01:39

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# ? May 17, 2024 14:47

grenada: Apr 20, 2013; Relax.

Yea there is a good chance that your first blog will crash and burn, but you'll learn a ton through trial and error. My first blog was a bust, and I have bought a half dozen domain names that I ended up doing nothing with.

However, I finally got one going (mostly through luck), and it's going strong! Getting ~125 uniques a day through google search and the occasional 2-3k burst from social media. I seemed to have gained some traction with google, and my keyword competition is very weak so I'm hoping to hit PR 1-3 later this year. Haven't figured out a way to monetize it yet, well I have (ebook), but I just haven't devoted the time to writing a full length book yet. In any case it is a great hobby, and has the potential to become a decent side income with more hard work and a bit of luck.

# ? Feb 22, 2015 23:05

Pierce and Pierce: Jul 1, 2007; Murders and Executions

laxbro posted:

I seemed to have gained some traction with google, and my keyword competition is very weak so I'm hoping to hit PR 1-3 later this year.

PR hasn't been updated in quite some time and never again will be according to Google. The factors that made up a high PR are still important and in place, but don't count on any publicly available indicator.

# ? Feb 22, 2015 23:11

grenada: Apr 20, 2013; Relax.

Pierce and Pierce posted:

PR hasn't been updated in quite some time and never again will be according to Google. The factors that made up a high PR are still important and in place, but don't count on any publicly available indicator.

Maybe I don't know what PR is then. I'm referring to my site being listed 4th or 5th when searching for my keyword which I can see in webmaster tools. A quick wikipedia search tell me that I might be referring to SERP rank and PR is something different?

# ? Feb 22, 2015 23:22

FCKGW: May 21, 2006

laxbro posted:

Maybe I don't know what PR is then. I'm referring to my site being listed 4th or 5th when searching for my keyword which I can see in webmaster tools. A quick wikipedia search tell me that I might be referring to SERP rank and PR is something different?

PageRank is the name of the algorithm that Google uses to gauge how relevant and important a page is. Sites like Microsoft and Wikipedia have a PR of 9 or 10. A page with a higher PR number would, in theory, rank higher in search engines. The problem with page rank is that assigning an actual number to how Google ranks pages gives grey and black hat seo marketers number to target to make go up or down. Getting rid of a number to denote authority yet still valuing those sites highly help Google fight spam.

# ? Feb 22, 2015 23:52

Pierce and Pierce: Jul 1, 2007; Murders and Executions

laxbro posted:

Maybe I don't know what PR is then. I'm referring to my site being listed 4th or 5th when searching for my keyword which I can see in webmaster tools. A quick wikipedia search tell me that I might be referring to SERP rank and PR is something different?

Oh. Yes, you're talking about ranking. PR = page rank.

# ? Feb 22, 2015 23:54

Cast_No_Shadow: Jun 8, 2010; The Republic of Luna Equestria is a huge, socially progressive nation, notable for its punitive income tax rates. Its compassionate, cynical population of 714m are ruled with an iron fist by the dictatorship government, which ensures that no-one outside the party gets too rich.

Apparently named after Larry Page and has nothing to do with where you are on a page, besides that being the point of it. Confusing naming choice to say the least.

# ? Feb 25, 2015 16:41

Grooglon: Nov 3, 2010; You did the right thing by calling us.

I have a blog that I've been writing for a few years. It's about a niche area of a totally over-saturated topic (video games), and it gets about 300 visitors on average each day (about 65% of which are new). The URL is pretty poor and doesn't contain any keywords, and the focus of the site has definitely been more on writing practice than profit-making.

I know video games in particular can be tough as far as ads go, so is Adsense even worth it in this case? I don't have dreams of striking it rich -- I'd be really happy to make beer money or cover my $15 a month server charge.

# ? Mar 5, 2015 20:36

snagger: Aug 14, 2004

Grooglon posted:

I have a blog that I've been writing for a few years. It's about a niche area of a totally over-saturated topic (video games), and it gets about 300 visitors on average each day (about 65% of which are new). The URL is pretty poor and doesn't contain any keywords, and the focus of the site has definitely been more on writing practice than profit-making.

I know video games in particular can be tough as far as ads go, so is Adsense even worth it in this case? I don't have dreams of striking it rich -- I'd be really happy to make beer money or cover my $15 a month server charge.

Maybe so! I'm also in a small/unprofitable niche (Japan travel), I maintain my site poorly, and I do $2.80 RPM (per mille, not per month) on 50 visitors a day. At the same RPM you'd pull down about $25 a month.

# ? Mar 5, 2015 21:29

grenada: Apr 20, 2013; Relax.

I'm jealous. I was getting a few clicks a day, but I only get .05-.30 cents per click. The keyword I rank for shows an average bid of 2.50 in keyword planner, so I'm not sure why I'm getting paid so little. I would be estatic if I was getting more than $1.00/click.

Started using amazon affiliate banners a few days ago and am getting a clickthru of 1%, but none of those have turned into conversions yet. Gonna stick it out for a month or two with Amazon affiliate to see how it works. If I don't make anything then I"ll try to contact adsense and ask why my CPC is so low.

# ? Mar 5, 2015 22:29

snagger: Aug 14, 2004

laxbro posted:

I'm jealous. I was getting a few clicks a day, but I only get .05-.30 cents per click. The keyword I rank for shows an average bid of 2.50 in keyword planner, so I'm not sure why I'm getting paid so little. I would be estatic if I was getting more than $1.00/click.

Started using amazon affiliate banners a few days ago and am getting a clickthru of 1%, but none of those have turned into conversions yet. Gonna stick it out for a month or two with Amazon affiliate to see how it works. If I don't make anything then I"ll try to contact adsense and ask why my CPC is so low.

In 5 years I've never gotten anything from Amazon links. I've noticed that my CPC goes up if traffic does. If it's a really high traffic month, my RPM will double. If your site is small that could be a factor. I also started disabling some ad types and forcing everyone on to behaviorally targeted ads, and that goosed my click rate a bit.

# ? Mar 6, 2015 00:10

FCKGW: May 21, 2006

snagger posted:

In 5 years I've never gotten anything from Amazon links. I've noticed that my CPC goes up if traffic does. If it's a really high traffic month, my RPM will double. If your site is small that could be a factor. I also started disabling some ad types and forcing everyone on to behaviorally targeted ads, and that goosed my click rate a bit.

This is true, the higher your traffic the better advertisers you will attract.

I've had decent results with Amazon, their 24 hour cookie helps a lot around Christmas.

# ? Mar 6, 2015 00:33

grenada: Apr 20, 2013; Relax.

snagger posted:

In 5 years I've never gotten anything from Amazon links. I've noticed that my CPC goes up if traffic does. If it's a really high traffic month, my RPM will double. If your site is small that could be a factor. I also started disabling some ad types and forcing everyone on to behaviorally targeted ads, and that goosed my click rate a bit.

Yea my site is a pretty small niche, the competition is very soft so I've been rising through the ranks pretty quickly. My costs are low (although I've sunk a lot into this with stupid domain/theme/etc purchases over the past two years).

I know I'll never make more than beer money with adsense or amazon affiliates. If I ever want to make decent money off this then I basically need to self publish a novel or collection of short stories and pimp it to my email list. Still a great hobby. I never would have thought that I'd be writing short stories and have a couple thousand people a month reading them!

# ? Mar 6, 2015 01:36

Omits-Bagels: Feb 13, 2001

I turned my blog (http://thesavvybackpacker.com) into a real book (http://amzn.com/1629147389) !

# ? Mar 6, 2015 19:14

Omits-Bagels: Feb 13, 2001

snagger posted:

In 5 years I've never gotten anything from Amazon links. I've noticed that my CPC goes up if traffic does. If it's a really high traffic month, my RPM will double. If your site is small that could be a factor. I also started disabling some ad types and forcing everyone on to behaviorally targeted ads, and that goosed my click rate a bit.

The secret to Amazon is to write about topics that relate to things people buy and then link to relevant products. Amazon banners and A-store don't do poo poo. It's all about adding links to products.

# ? Mar 6, 2015 19:19

KetTarma: Jul 25, 2003; Suffer not the lobbyist to live.

Facebook Fanpage woes:

For the past 3 months, I have posted a picture with some commentary every day at a random time between noon and 7pm. When I started this, I had 501 Likes. At this point, I have exactly.. 501 Likes.

Each picture gets a few Likes, some Shares. My post reach is about 300 per week.

What am I doing wrong? It seems like at least a few people should've stumbled upon my fanpage over the past few months and Liked it.

Page for reference:
https://www.facebook.com/wirebiters

# ? Mar 6, 2015 20:58

snagger: Aug 14, 2004

KetTarma posted:

For the past 3 months, I have posted a picture with some commentary every day at a random time between noon and 7pm. When I started this, I had 501 Likes. At this point, I have exactly.. 501 Likes.

A few possibilities:
-Facebook wants your money to increase your reach (thereby exposing more of your audience's friends to your Page)
-Your audience has people in completely different time zones
-Your blog doesn't have a Like box
-You're not incentivizing a Like from your website or on the Page itself (using a social locker)
-Your content is insufficiently viral

# ? Mar 6, 2015 21:03

SLICK GOKU BABY: Jun 12, 2001; Hey Hey Let's Go! 喧嘩する
大切な物を protect my balls

laxbro posted:

I'm jealous. I was getting a few clicks a day, but I only get .05-.30 cents per click. The keyword I rank for shows an average bid of 2.50 in keyword planner, so I'm not sure why I'm getting paid so little. I would be estatic if I was getting more than $1.00/click.

Started using amazon affiliate banners a few days ago and am getting a clickthru of 1%, but none of those have turned into conversions yet. Gonna stick it out for a month or two with Amazon affiliate to see how it works. If I don't make anything then I"ll try to contact adsense and ask why my CPC is so low.

It's probably good to note that the CPC in keyword planner is the estimated cost to pay Google to place an ad. It's not what Google pays to the website that is running the ads.

# ? Mar 6, 2015 21:57

FCKGW: May 21, 2006

Omits-Bagels posted:

I turned my blog (http://thesavvybackpacker.com) into a real book (http://amzn.com/1629147389) !

Awesome, I really like the cover too.

Edit: how well has this been selling that there's already 82 used copies :stare:

# ? Mar 6, 2015 21:59

Omits-Bagels: Feb 13, 2001

FCKGW posted:

Awesome, I really like the cover too.

Edit: how well has this been selling that there's already 82 used copies

There were used copies available before the book was officially published. No idea how that works.

# ? Mar 6, 2015 22:12

dhrusis: Jan 19, 2004; searching...

hey guys I need some HTML help on the theme for my Wordpress/Woocommerce online store. I figured one of you guys could look at the code in about 2 seconds and tell me what to change to make this work:

The page is here: http://livefreecoffee.com/shop/

The issue I'm having is the sidebar is too far down on the page instead of being on the right, like on this page: http://livefreecoffee.com

It seems no matter what I do with the DIV code it wants to move down there. I'm sure I can fix it with time but its annoying me and I know someone on here has the chops I'm missing:

# ? Mar 10, 2015 18:11

jabro: Mar 25, 2003; July Mock Draft 2014

1st PLACE
RUNNER-UP
got the knowshon

dhrusis posted:

hey guys I need some HTML help on the theme for my Wordpress/Woocommerce online store. I figured one of you guys could look at the code in about 2 seconds and tell me what to change to make this work:

The page is here: http://livefreecoffee.com/shop/

The issue I'm having is the sidebar is too far down on the page instead of being on the right, like on this page: http://livefreecoffee.com

It seems no matter what I do with the DIV code it wants to move down there. I'm sure I can fix it with time but its annoying me and I know someone on here has the chops I'm missing:

I'm on my phone so can't really check anything but since you're on WordPress the first thing I'd check is my widgets and see if there a sidebar one that is not populating correctly.

# ? Mar 10, 2015 18:19

dhrusis: Jan 19, 2004; searching...

jabro posted:

I'm on my phone so can't really check anything but since you're on WordPress the first thing I'd check is my widgets and see if there a sidebar one that is not populating correctly.

Yeah, its just on the /shop page because its Woocommerce generating that page and it doesn't plan well with my generic theme..

# ? Mar 10, 2015 19:38

snagger: Aug 14, 2004

dhrusis posted:

Yeah, its just on the /shop page because its Woocommerce generating that page and it doesn't plan well with my generic theme..

Open it up in your browser's dev tools and examine the source code around that area. The right margin on #content looks quite suspect to me.

# ? Mar 10, 2015 20:36

Moniker: Mar 16, 2004

dhrusis posted:

hey guys I need some HTML help on the theme for my Wordpress/Woocommerce online store. I figured one of you guys could look at the code in about 2 seconds and tell me what to change to make this work:

The page is here: http://livefreecoffee.com/shop/

The issue I'm having is the sidebar is too far down on the page instead of being on the right, like on this page: http://livefreecoffee.com

It seems no matter what I do with the DIV code it wants to move down there. I'm sure I can fix it with time but its annoying me and I know someone on here has the chops I'm missing:

I only have a couple of minutes but it seems like this will fix it. You can tweak from there.

Add to a new CSS file, or your theme's CSS if you don't plan on updating the theme.

code:

#content {
	margin: 0
	width: 76%
	padding: 1em
	-o-box-sizing: border-box
	-webkit-box-sizing: border-box
	box-sizing: border-box
	float: left
}

#secondary {
	margin: 0
	width: 22%
	pading: 1em
	-o-box-sizing: border-box
	-webkit-box-sizing: border-box
	box-sizing: border-box
	float: left
}

# ? Mar 12, 2015 15:50

dhrusis: Jan 19, 2004; searching...

Moniker posted:

I only have a couple of minutes but it seems like this will fix it. You can tweak from there.

Add to a new CSS file, or your theme's CSS if you don't plan on updating the theme.
code:
#content {
	margin: 0
	width: 76%
	padding: 1em
	-o-box-sizing: border-box
	-webkit-box-sizing: border-box
	box-sizing: border-box
	float: left
}

#secondary {
	margin: 0
	width: 22%
	pading: 1em
	-o-box-sizing: border-box
	-webkit-box-sizing: border-box
	box-sizing: border-box
	float: left
}

THANK YOU Moniker. I'll insert it when I get an opportunity. Appreciate it... I couldn't nail this down for some reason.. I was looking for a tweak and I guess it needed a re-write.

EDIT: drat, its not working (pasted it into style.css at the bottom to test it)..

I'll dive into it this weekend or just upgrade to a WooCommerce enabled theme. Appreciate the help.

EDIT2: Fixed, added a bunch of semi colons :-) YOU THE MAN! Thanks.

dhrusis fucked around with this message at 00:44 on Mar 14, 2015

# ? Mar 13, 2015 23:23

Moniker: Mar 16, 2004

dhrusis posted:

THANK YOU Moniker. I'll insert it when I get an opportunity. Appreciate it... I couldn't nail this down for some reason.. I was looking for a tweak and I guess it needed a re-write.

EDIT: drat, its not working (pasted it into style.css at the bottom to test it).. I'll dive into it this weekend or just upgrade to a WooCommerce enabled theme. Appreciate the help.

EDIT2: Fixed, added a bunch of semi colons :-) YOU THE MAN! Thanks.

Oh my bad. I normally write SASS so I'm not used to adding the semi-colons. I thought I was ahead of the curve with the brackets. Hahah. Sorry!

# ? Mar 14, 2015 19:49

BlackMK4: Aug 23, 2006; wat.; Megamarm

I'm not blogging, I have a database-as-a-website type thing (http://www.desmoduck.com/) going, but I was curious if there are any good sites for having ideas for site improvements bounced around. My market is niche but traffic has been growing lately and I've been looking for ways to improve or obvious features that I've missed.

# ? Mar 18, 2015 00:59

moana: Jun 18, 2005; one of the more intellectual satire communities on the web

Omits-Bagels posted:

I turned my blog (http://thesavvybackpacker.com) into a real book (http://amzn.com/1629147389) !

Advice: republish with a better book description that has keywords in it, put your book in Kindle Select, drop the price to 99c. You'll rise in rank and make more money than you're making now.

# ? Mar 18, 2015 04:56

Omits-Bagels: Feb 13, 2001

moana posted:

Advice: republish with a better book description that has keywords in it, put your book in Kindle Select, drop the price to 99c. You'll rise in rank and make more money than you're making now.

All this was decided by my publisher. I don't really see this book as a money making endeavor.

# ? Mar 18, 2015 13:15

A GIANT PARSNIP: Apr 13, 2010; Too much fuckin' eggnog

I'm looking to make a website/blog about financial security for families (not the actual topic, but close enough for this discussion). I'm going to spend a few weeks creating raw content, and I've already scoped out a few domains that are available and would work well. The subject matter has people searching for raw information, as well as searching for recommendations on what to do. My plan is to have part of the site dedicated to purely factual information, and then part dedicated to blog posts that are more conversational and opinion based.

Can anyone recommend wordpress themes that would work well for a partially factual information/partially blog format? Also, I'd like to get a bunch of stock photos for use on my website of generic families with kids/couples/old people for emotional appeal. Can anyone recommend a place to purchase the rights to stock photos for website use?

# ? Mar 19, 2015 00:57

Moniker: Mar 16, 2004

A GIANT PARSNIP posted:

I'm looking to make a website/blog about financial security for families (not the actual topic, but close enough for this discussion). I'm going to spend a few weeks creating raw content, and I've already scoped out a few domains that are available and would work well. The subject matter has people searching for raw information, as well as searching for recommendations on what to do. My plan is to have part of the site dedicated to purely factual information, and then part dedicated to blog posts that are more conversational and opinion based.

Can anyone recommend wordpress themes that would work well for a partially factual information/partially blog format? Also, I'd like to get a bunch of stock photos for use on my website of generic families with kids/couples/old people for emotional appeal. Can anyone recommend a place to purchase the rights to stock photos for website use?

canstockphoto.com is good for photos. also foter.com for free options.

You could check reddit.com/r/design_assets for a free wordpress theme that might work - Or just go to themeforest.com or something. Any clean looking template would be more than adequate imo.

# ? Mar 19, 2015 01:48

Royal Jeans: May 12, 2012

A GIANT PARSNIP posted:

Can anyone recommend wordpress themes that would work well for a partially factual information/partially blog format? Also, I'd like to get a bunch of stock photos for use on my website of generic families with kids/couples/old people for emotional appeal. Can anyone recommend a place to purchase the rights to stock photos for website use?

I'm a huge fan of Genesis themes myself but if you're looking for free themes there's a lot to choose from as well. What sites do you like the looks of? Find some sites that appeal to you and try http://whatwpthemeisthat.com/ to see what they're using.

As far as photos go I get a lot of great free ones from pixabay.com, morguefile.com & unsplash.com

# ? Mar 19, 2015 22:22

A GIANT PARSNIP: Apr 13, 2010; Too much fuckin' eggnog

Royal Jeans posted:

I'm a huge fan of Genesis themes myself but if you're looking for free themes there's a lot to choose from as well. What sites do you like the looks of? Find some sites that appeal to you and try http://whatwpthemeisthat.com/ to see what they're using.

As far as photos go I get a lot of great free ones from pixabay.com, morguefile.com & unsplash.com

I was already planning on dumping $30-$60 into a theme, so I'm okay with it not being free. A quick 3 minute search of Genesis themes brought this theme to my attention. I specifically like the drop down menus at the top, the large pictures that scroll with 3-5 of the newest articles as the focal point of the front page, and the option to have smaller boxes below for slightly older blog posts/informational posts. I don't really like the $100 price tag though.

Also what do people typically do to investigate search terms? I'd love to get in on some of that nasty long tail keyword action, but I don't know what to look for with google's basic tools, and I'd prefer not to drop $200 or whatever on a piece of SEO software - especially if all it's doing is converting that google information into a more user friendly form.

# ? Mar 20, 2015 00:08

Royal Jeans: May 12, 2012

A GIANT PARSNIP posted:

I was already planning on dumping $30-$60 into a theme, so I'm okay with it not being free. A quick 3 minute search of Genesis themes brought this theme to my attention. I specifically like the drop down menus at the top, the large pictures that scroll with 3-5 of the newest articles as the focal point of the front page, and the option to have smaller boxes below for slightly older blog posts/informational posts. I don't really like the $100 price tag though.

Also what do people typically do to investigate search terms? I'd love to get in on some of that nasty long tail keyword action, but I don't know what to look for with google's basic tools, and I'd prefer not to drop $200 or whatever on a piece of SEO software - especially if all it's doing is converting that google information into a more user friendly form.

Genesis is more expensive than other themes since you're buying a framework along with it. It's great for developers or those who work with multiple sites and they offer great support.

Theme forest has a ton of great themes as well; I think a lot of the business & non profit themes have a similar look to Outreach.

I use the google keyword planner ( here are a couple great guides for getting started with it; http://www.searchenginejournal.com/definitive-guide-using-googles-keyword-planner-tool-keyword-research/69655/ & http://backlinko.com/google-keyword-planner) To find potential keywords I browse quora, ubersuggest & my new favorite tool is http://keywordtool.io/.

# ? Mar 20, 2015 01:03

A GIANT PARSNIP: Apr 13, 2010; Too much fuckin' eggnog

Royal Jeans posted:

I use the google keyword planner ( here are a couple great guides for getting started with it; http://www.searchenginejournal.com/definitive-guide-using-googles-keyword-planner-tool-keyword-research/69655/ & http://backlinko.com/google-keyword-planner) To find potential keywords I browse quora, ubersuggest & my new favorite tool is http://keywordtool.io/.

I just wanted to let you know how amazing these links are. Thank you!

# ? Mar 20, 2015 18:36

A GIANT PARSNIP: Apr 13, 2010; Too much fuckin' eggnog

Sorry for the double post, but does anyone have a favorite site/program for making infographics? My graphic design knowledge is non existent.

# ? Mar 22, 2015 14:00

grenada: Apr 20, 2013; Relax.

I bought photoshop elements for like 50 bucks. You can make simple info graphics in there without much practice.

There are lots of websites that pretty much make shiny info graphics for you, but you'll need to sign up with them and pay to get anything beyond their most simple design. A google search will lead you to the most popular of these services.

# ? Mar 22, 2015 14:19

A GIANT PARSNIP: Apr 13, 2010; Too much fuckin' eggnog

laxbro posted:

I bought photoshop elements for like 50 bucks. You can make simple info graphics in there without much practice.

There are lots of websites that pretty much make shiny info graphics for you, but you'll need to sign up with them and pay to get anything beyond their most simple design. A google search will lead you to the most popular of these services.

Yeah, I found a few online but they want $25+ a month or else they watermark your images. I guess I was wondering if anyone had a service they liked/disliked before I dropped cash on it.

I have an old version of Adobe Photoshop/Premiere (Elements 10) that I got for free a few years back - maybe I'll open it up and play around with it a bit.

A GIANT PARSNIP fucked around with this message at 15:03 on Mar 22, 2015

# ? Mar 22, 2015 14:30

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# ? May 17, 2024 14:47

grenada: Apr 20, 2013; Relax.

A GIANT PARSNIP posted:

Yeah, I found a few online but they want $25+ a month or else they watermark your images. I guess I was wondering if anyone had a service they liked/disliked before I dropped cash on it.

I have an old version of Adobe Photoshop/Premiere (Elements 10) that I got for free a few years back - maybe I'll open it up and play around with it a bit.

25 a month for an infographic builder is absurd. Just load infographics you like into Photoshop and edit your info in and tweak the colors etc.

Instead, use that 25 bucks a month to promote your website or buy content!

Edit: fight the urge to spend money on blog extras this early on. Focus on producing content. Buy content if you have money to burn. Possibly buy Facebook or Pinterest traffic if you think it will convert. I'm like 4 or 500 in the hole from buying silly extras from when I was just starting out. My site is now getting decent traffic, but I am not even close to making any money off it.

grenada fucked around with this message at 19:57 on Mar 22, 2015

# ? Mar 22, 2015 19:49

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Blogs For Bucks: I Got 99 Blogs But Male Enhancement Ain't One.

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